President Joe Biden on Sunday praised the courage of civil rights activists and condemned efforts to restrict voting and attack the election process in a speech commemorating the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma.

In his 20-minute address delivered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where a law enforcement posse attacked civil rights marchers on March 7, 1965, Biden said he would continue to support efforts to defend voting access, and quoted the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, who was beaten on the bridge that day.

“The children of God started a journey, not saying a word, walking, beaten, teargassed,” Biden said, quoting Lewis. “On this bridge, blood was given to help redeem the soul of America.”

The speech came as federal efforts to restore portions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act — a direct product of Bloody Sunday — have stalled. The 2021 John Lewis Voting Rights Act, meant to strengthen the federal law, passed the U.S. House of Representatives later that year, but failed to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

Biden vowed Sunday to continue to fight for the bill.

“I made it clear,” Biden said. “I will not let a filibuster obstruct the sacred right to vote.”

Voting Rights Act

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of voter discrimination, such as Alabama, to get approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before changing voting laws. Last year, the high court ...

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