Biden marches with Sharpton in Selma
Marchers chant for voting rights marking ‘Bloody Sunday’ anniversary.
President Biden is being urged to "choose more worthy allies" after marching with the Rev. Al Sharpton in Selma Alabama on Sunday.
Biden marked the 58th anniversary of Selma’s "Bloody Sunday," where activists chanted for voting rights as they crossed the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.
"Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote ... to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it anything’s possible," Biden told the crowd.
"This fundamental right remains under assault," he said. "The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states and dozens and dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the ‘Big Lie’ and the election deniers now elected to office."
From left, Biden, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the Rev. Al Sharpton, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Sunday marked nearly six decades since the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and hundreds of Black Americans were beaten by Alabama state troopers trying to cross the same bridge in the name of voting rights on March 7, 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eight days after "Bloody Sunday," calling Selma one those rare moments in American history where "history and fate meet at a single time," and he signed it into law later that year.
Biden introduced legislation in 2021, named after Lewis, which included a new, expanded formula that the Department of Justice could use to identify discriminatory voting patterns in states and local jurisdictions. It passed the then-Democratic-controlled House, but it failed to advance in the Senate.
Biden shared the stage in Selma with Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. William Barber II, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala, and Martin Luther King III.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, second from left, talks with President Joe Biden in Selma, Ala., Sunday, March 5, 2023, as Biden arrives to commemorate the 58th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," a landmark event of the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)
President Joe Biden walks across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., Sunday, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Sharpton, a weekend host on MSNBC, has a checkered past when it comes to accusations of antisemitism, most notably in New York City during the late 1980s and early 1990s amid strained relations between Jewish and Black communities at the time.
Sharpton was blamed for fueling the violence that led to the stabbing of a Jewish rabbinical student during the Crown Heights riots of 1991, and he later led protests against a Jewish-owned store in Harlem that was eventually burned down, leading to the deaths of eight people.
StopAntisemitism, a watchdog organization that tracks instances of antisemitism, urged Biden to pick more "worthy allies" for future events.
"StopAntisemitism is disheartened that President Biden would affiliate with Reverend Sharpton, who has a decades-long history of antisemitic rhetoric," the group told Fox News Digital in a statement. "There are better standard-bearers for inclusion and freedom than Sharpton, and we hope President Biden will choose more worthy allies in the future."
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Jackson has had his own troubles with the Jewish community, as well. Louis Farrakhan, a longtime Jackson ally and notorious anti-Semite, came to his defense in the 1980s after he referred to Jews as the derogatory word "Hymies."
Jackson also came under fire for endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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