Bus riders to Montgomery retrace old steps while fighting a new fight - BERITAJA

A man sings a spirtual opus during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, successful Montgomery, Ala. Mike Stewart/AP

Mike Stewart/AP

MONTGOMERY, Ala.— In 1965, Black Americans peacefully demonstrated for voting authorities and were beaten by Alabama authorities troopers earlier returning 2 weeks later to complete their march nether national protection. Keith Odom was a toddler then.

Now 62 years old, the national man and grandfather of 3 retraced immoderate of their last steps. On Saturday, he came from Aiken, South Carolina, to Atlanta, wherever he joined respective twelve different activists connected 2 buses to Montgomery, Alabama. A fewer hours later, he stepped disconnected his autobus and onto Dexter Avenue, wherever the original march concluded.

"The history present — being a portion of it, seeing it, emotion it," said Odom, who is Black.

His sound trailed disconnected arsenic he saw the Alabama Capitol and a shape that sat about wherever the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. concluded the original march.

Odom lamented that he and his chap autobus riders were not simply commemorating that seminal time successful the Civil Rights Movement. Instead they came to renew the fight. The 1965 effort helped push Congress to nonstop the Voting Rights Act to Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign, securing and expanding governmental powerfulness for Black and different nonwhite voters for much than a half-century.

Saturday's "All Roads Lead to the South" rally was the first wide organizing consequence aft a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely diminished that landmark law. Striking down a mostly Black legislature territory successful Louisiana, the justices concluded successful a 6-3 ruling that considering title erstwhile drafting governmental lines is successful itself discriminatory. That spurred aggregate states, including Alabama, to redraw U.S. House districts successful ways that make it harder for Black voters, who thin overwhelmingly Democratic, to elite lawmakers of their choice.

"I'm not trying to unrecorded a life that's going backwards," Odom said. "I want to spell forward, for my grandchildren to beryllium capable to spell forward."

Keith Odom, a forklift driver from Aiken, S.C., looks retired from his autobus spot arsenic he arrives successful Montgomery, Ala., for a voting authorities rally Saturday, May 16, 2026. Bill Barrow/AP

Bill Barrow/AP

An aged governmental conflict is caller again

The rider rosters and the segment erstwhile riders arrived successful Montgomery sounded the echoes and rhymes of past and present.

"I talked to my grandma earlier I came, and she was truthful excited," said Justice Washington, a Kennesaw State University student named because her mother and grandma had religion successful the American system. "My grandma told maine she did her part, and now it's clip for maine to do mine."

No 1 connected the Atlanta buses had reached voting property erstwhile the Voting Rights Act became law. The youngest attendee was calved arsenic Democrat Barack Obama was elected the first Black president successful 2008.

Kobe Chernushin is 18, achromatic and conscionable graduated precocious schoolhouse successful Atlanta's bluish suburbs. He is an organizer pinch the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition and spent the time filming Khayla Doby, a 29-year-old executive for the organization, doing standups for the group's followers connected societal media.

"I judge successful the powerfulness of showing up," he said.

The buses launched from the legislature territory successful Georgia erstwhile represented by John Lewis, bloodied connected the Edmund Pettus Bridge successful Selma, Alabama, erstwhile he was 25. Lewis died successful 2020, but immoderate connected the buses Saturday celebrated that a projected national predetermination overhaul is named for him. If immoderate Democrats get their way, the measure would override the U.S. Supreme Court, reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act and outlaw the benignant of gerrymandering title that Republican President Donald Trump has instigated.

"I'm present because of the aforesaid forces that pulled connected John Lewis erstwhile he was a student," said Darrin Owens, 27. He has worked for erstwhile Vice President Kamala Harris and now trains Democratic candidates.

"Political activism is personal," Owens said, explaining that he attended Saturday arsenic a citizen, not a governmental professional. "Sometimes those lines are blurred, and arsenic a Black personification successful America, a Black personification surviving successful a Southern state, I'm committed to action that stops what I see to beryllium un-American, this anticipation that the personification who represents maine is personification who is not from my organization and does not understand maine aliases my community."

When he arrived, Owens saw nary national authorities connected Montgomery's streets. A wounded, recovering Lewis did during the 2nd march successful 1965.

This clip galore of the Alabama troopers and section officers who walked the area were Black.

The buses and sandwich lunches had been arranged by Fair Fight Action, a bequest of the governmental web built by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who became a nationalist fig successful her unsuccessful runs successful 2018 and 2022 to go the first Black female elected politician successful U.S. history. No Black female has yet achieved that feat.

Bee Nguyen, left, talks to Carole Burton, center, and Tondalaire Ashford astatine a voting authorities rally Saturday, May 16, 2026, successful Montgomery, Ala. Bill Barrow/AP

Bill Barrow/AP

Different generations stock their stories

At different points, Montgomery has branded itself arsenic the cradle of the Confederacy and the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

"It feels for illustration our state is stuck successful this shape of making progress, past there's a immense backlash, and past group person to spell done the aforesaid conflict again conscionable to get to wherever we were," said Phi Nguyen, the 41-year-old girl of Vietnamese refugees. She is now a civilian authorities lawyer successful Atlanta.

She stood crossed from the religion wherever a young King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott successful 1955 and not acold from wherever Jefferson Davis took the oath of agency successful 1861 arsenic the slavery-defending Confederate president.

Nguyen and her sister Bee, a 44-year-old who served successful the Georgia General Assembly and ran for statewide office, met 2 different women arsenic they walked. Carole Burton and Tondalaire Ashford are 72-year-old Montgomery residents who person been friends since they were successful a segregated inferior precocious schoolhouse and past recently desegregated Sidney Lanier High School.

"I don't telephone it 'integration,'" Ashford said, pointing astatine her acheronian skin. "It was ne'er existent integration, and it's not for illustration we could ever conscionable blend in."

Burton described them arsenic being "in the 2nd wave" of Black students. "It wasn't easy," she said. "And we had to support each other."

They retrieve their parents not being capable to ballot successful the era of canvass taxes, literacy tests and different racist restrictions that the Voting Rights Act yet outlawed. But they smiled arsenic they swapped family histories pinch the Nguyens.

Burton said immigrants, descendants of enslaved persons and Native Americans person different but overlapping paths. "We conscionable want to beryllium treated for illustration group pinch the aforesaid authorities and opportunities the state has promised us," she said. "They've ne'er afloat lived up to it."

Aaron McGuire sings a spirtual opus during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, successful Montgomery, Ala. Mike Stewart/AP

Mike Stewart/AP

Conflicting legacies are astatine stake

To Odom, who had begun his travel Saturday successful South Carolina, the existent U.S. Supreme Court reinforced that history by refusing to spot immoderate race-conscious predetermination argumentation arsenic a measurement to guarantee adjacent representation, not simply the "technical correct to vote."

He recalls decades of his life being represented by Strom Thurmond, a segregationist Democratic politician who became a "Dixiecrat" statesmanlike campaigner and U.S. legislator — by now arsenic a Republican — into the 21st century. Odom said he fears his authorities losing U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a elder personnel of the Congressional Black Caucus, done redistricting.

"They want to return distant that bequest erstwhile we're still surviving pinch Strom's?" Odom said.

Odom said he is besides worried that the young group who participated Saturday are not a vanguard but outliers.

"I was talking to a 20-year-old co-worker about this trip," he said. "She told maine she supported maine but didn't want to do it aliases activity for anybody" moving for office. "She wondered what immoderate of them are going to do for her."

Nonetheless, he said connected the measurement home, "I'm still going to show her what I saw and what I heard."