Three members of Congress accused the Trump administration of attempting to erase a part of Alabama’s historical past Saturday in speeches exterior a Montgomery landmark of the Civil Rights Motion.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham; U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Cell; and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries of New York spoke in protection of the Freedom Rides Museum, housed within the historic Montgomery Bus Station. The station was included in a listing printed Tuesday by the U.S. Basic Providers Administration of greater than 400 federal buildings and properties to be bought because of ongoing cuts from the Division of Authorities Effectivity.
In 1961, Freedom Riders have been attacked on the station by white supremacists. Representatives for the museum informed AL.com on Thursday they’d not been contacted by anybody from the GSA relating to its sale. The checklist was taken down from GSA’s web site inside a day.
Jeffries stated the preliminary itemizing was in step with what he referred to as, “reckless tyranny being unleashed by some in Washington to try to erase our history.”
The three spoke on the sixtieth anniversary weekend of “Bloody Sunday,” when Alabama state troopers and an all-white posse attacked Civil Rights Motion marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they made their method from Selma to Montgomery. Among the many marchers was future Congressman John Lewis, whom Figures invoked.
“We have to stand up for Montgomery, we have to stand up for our history, and we have to stand up for this bus station with the same resolve that John Lewis and the Freedom Riders stood up for America,” he stated.
Sewell stated she and Figures have been getting ready laws that may require congressional approval earlier than a constructing owned by the federal authorities might be bought. She referred to as on Alabamians to contact their elected officers in Washington – notably Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt.
“Our two senators have a hotline to the White House. We want them to use it to help us preserve … Alabama history,” she stated.
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