Biden at 56 / o Selma, Congress restores Voting Rights Act

Joe Biden will sign an executive order today to facilitate the vote, on the occasion of the 56th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday', the civil rights march in which hundreds of peaceful protesters were attacked by police in Selma, Alabama

.

"Today, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I will sign an executive order to make it easier for voters to register to vote and to improve access to the vote," reads the anticipations of his statements released by the White House.

A move that comes after the approval in the House of a law to expand the right to vote and the attempt by some Republican states to restrict it.

On the occasion of the anniversary, the president will make a video speech at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast, paying tribute to John Lewis, protagonist of Selma's marches.

Biden will reiterate his administration's intention to continue the march for justice by strengthening voting rights and racial equality.  

Joe Biden has appealed to Congress to fully reinstate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

, the law that specifically bans racial discrimination in voting.

"I have always been proud to lead efforts to re-authorize her over the years as a senator on the justice commission but at the same time Republicans at every level have undermined her," he recalled.

"Then - he continued - in 2013 the Supreme Court destroyed the Voting Rights Act, arguing that times had changed and that voting discrimination was rare, contrary to the ongoing assault. The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the decision was like 'throwing away your umbrella in a thunderstorm.' We have a hailstorm today, not a thunderstorm. "

"Those burning torches and crosses, batons, tear gas, attack dogs, unfair laws and trials could not stop progress. The blood of John Lewis and hundreds of other brave and righteous souls who were killed in Selma, that Sunday in 1965, they sanctified a noble battle ": Joe Biden affirms this in the anticipations, released by the White House, of his video intervention on the occasion of the 56th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'.

Biden also recalled that "in our lives, for African Americans, fundamental voting rights have been denied by white supremacists hiding both behind white hoods and in the open in state parliaments and courts."