Over the weekend, WBNG members joined thousands in Selma, Alabama, for the 60th Bridge Crossing Jubilee, commemorating the struggle for voting rights and honoring the civil rights and labor leaders who paved the way. Sixty years ago, activists faced brutal attacks on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for demanding the right to vote.
The message of this year’s event was clear: voting rights are under attack, and democracy is at risk. Lisa Wright, Vice President of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, emphasized the urgency of protecting the Voting Rights Act and ensuring Black, brown and women voters maintain access to the ballot. “As a democracy, we are under attack,” Wright said. “It’s critical that we keep our voting rights because what’s happening affects all of us.”
Unions, Divine Nine sororities and fraternities and civil rights organizations came together to mark this moment, recognizing that the fight for democracy and racial justice is far from over. “This year’s march was much larger than the last time I participated,” Wright noted. “It happened in waves—first came Congress, then the unions, and behind us, thousands more. Looking back, you could see how massive it was.”
The march is a powerful reminder that the fight for labor rights and civil rights has always been deeply connected. “We are part of a larger movement—one that surrounds us today,” Wright reflected. “We have to stay active, bring our communities in, and keep organizing.”
The struggle that brought marchers to Selma in 1965 is not a relic of the past. It is a living fight, and as union members, we are in it. Together, we march forward.
