Focus Policy Blog

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Joint Center in Selma for the 51st Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”

This past weekend, the Joint Center traveled to Selma, Alabama to commemorate “Bloody Sunday.”  The Joint Center hosted a Business Empowerment Symposium with Selma Mayor George Evans, and organized three key sessions for small town Black Belt mayors on improving infrastructure, economic opportunity, and quality of life in the rural South.  The Joint Center also testified at a Congressional voting rights field hearing before ten Members of Congress.

Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” and the Voting Rights Act that grew out of those events play a critical role in the history of the Joint Center.  The Joint Center was founded in 1970 to support the hundreds of Black officials elected as a result of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.   The Joint Center worked for several decades as the leading black think tank and policy innovation center.  Today, the Joint Center produces research, ideas, and solutions that support innovative elected officials from all communities of color as they serve in leadership positions around the country.

Click on this Storify to see a recap of the Joint Center’s weekend in Alabama, and click on the following to view pictures from our 2015 and 2014 Selma trips.