<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The crowd stood in silence on Saturday atop the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the span in Selma, Ala., named for a Confederate general that has been an enduring monument to the braided legacies of struggle and defiance that have infused the fight for civil rights in the South.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The bridge had infamously been the site of bloodshed, where footage of law enforcement beating down protesters as they marched in 1965 horrified the nation. The marches helped galvanize the political support necessary to enact the Voting Rights Act, one of the core legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Since then, civil rights leaders and others involved in the movement have kept returning — in anger over setbacks, in jubilation over victories and in mourning as a generation of pioneering activists began to fade.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">This time, they had come in search of clarity and direction.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Last month, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Voting Rights Act, clearing the way for lawmakers across the South to quickly redraw congressional maps and eliminate majority-Black districts once protected by the act in order to create a more favorable landscape for Republicans.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Those who assembled on Saturday to oppose the decision and its aftermath retraced the route of the demonstrations in 1965, beginning in Selma and ending roughly 50 miles away in Montgomery, at the Capitol. But the gathering, organizers said, was not a protest. If anything, it was more akin to an altar call, a tradition in some Christian churches in which worshipers stand before a congregation and affirm their commitment to their beliefs.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“We gather on this day in mourning, in lamentation, in outrage, and in deep, profound love,” the Rev. Sofía Betancourt, the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said from the pulpit of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, where the daylong event began. “We gather in the knowledge that we must rise up and say, Never again.”</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and <a href="https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2026%2F05%2F16%2Fus%2Fselma-march-voting-rights-act-redistricting.html&amp;asset=opttrunc">log into</a> your Times account, or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2026%2F05%2F16%2Fus%2Fselma-march-voting-rights-act-redistricting.html">subscribe</a> for all of The Times.</p><hr/></div><div class="css-1g71tqy" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-content"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-63woee" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-spinner" data-tpl="sp" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><g fill="currentColor"><path d="M11.28 22.8a.72.72 0 1 0 1.44 0v-6.72a.72.72 0 1 0-1.44 0v6.72Z" opacity=".37"></path><path d="M17.766 21.16a.72.72 0 1 0 1.165-.846l-3.95-5.436a.72.72 0 1 0-1.165.846l3.95 5.437Z" opacity=".26"></path><path d="M1.506 14.653a.72.72 0 0 0 .445 1.37l6.391-2.078a.72.72 0 1 0-.445-1.369l-6.39 2.077Z" opacity=".61"></path><path d="M5.07 20.314a.72.72 0 0 0 1.164.847l3.95-5.437a.72.72 0 1 0-1.165-.846l-3.95 5.436Z" opacity=".48"></path><path d="M22.049 16.022a.72.72 0 0 0 .445-1.37l-6.391-2.076a.72.72 0 1 0-.445 1.37l6.39 2.076Z" opacity=".17"></path><path d="M22.494 9.347a.72.72 0 1 0-.445-1.37l-6.391 2.078a.72.72 0 1 0 .445 1.369l6.39-2.077Z" opacity=".09"></path><path d="M6.234 2.84a.72.72 0 0 0-1.165.846l3.95 5.436a.72.72 0 0 0 1.165-.846l-3.95-5.437Z" opacity=".87"></path><path d="M1.951 7.978a.72.72 0 1 0-.445 1.37l6.391 2.076a.72.72 0 1 0 .445-1.37l-6.39-2.076Z" opacity=".74"></path><path d="M18.93 3.686a.72.72 0 0 0-1.164-.847l-3.95 5.437a.72.72 0 0 0 1.165.846l3.95-5.436Z" opacity=".02"></path><path d="M12.72 1.2a.72.72 0 1 0-1.44 0v6.72a.72.72 0 0 0 1.44 0V1.2Z"></path></g></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Thank you for your patience while we verify access.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Already a subscriber? <a class="css-z5ryv4" data-testid="log-in-link" href="https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&amp;client_id=vi&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2026%2F05%2F16%2Fus%2Fselma-march-voting-rights-act-redistricting.html&amp;asset=opttrunc">Log in</a>.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Want all of The Times? <a class="css-z5ryv4" data-testid="subscribe-link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2026%2F05%2F16%2Fus%2Fselma-march-voting-rights-act-redistricting.html">Subscribe</a>.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div>