Sen. Ossoff Receives Leadership Award at Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast on 56th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Press Release

This morning, U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock were presented with the 2021 Martin and Coretta King National Leadership Award at the annual Unity Breakfast in Selma, Alabama.

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is the largest annual Civil Rights event in the nation with tens of thousands attending every year, although this year, many of the Jubilee's events and celebrations are virtual. 2021 marks the 56th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the 29th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

President Joe Biden, Majority Whip Congressman Jim Clyburn, Congresswoman Terri Sewell, and others also spoke at the breakfast.

Sen. Ossoff addressed the breakfast remotely, thanking the Selma-to-Montgomery Nonprofit Commemoration Foundation for the award and speaking on the importance of continuing to fight for voting rights and the lessons he learned from his mentor, Congressman John Lewis.

"56 years is not too long. And so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that 56 years later, the power of the right to vote having just been demonstrated, that politicians here in Georgia are trying to disenfranchise Black people again, are trying to strip away the right to vote that so many bled and died for by passing voter suppression legislation that is no better than Jim Crow," Senator Ossoff said. "And those politicians who would use the force of law to disenfranchise Black people in the American South today are no better than Bull Connor. And that's why in the United States Senate, we must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and we must pass the For the People Act to end voter suppression, to protect the sacred right to vote, because the struggle continues."

Please click here to watch Senator Ossoff's full remarks.

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