Shomari Figures and Hank Sanders speaking in Selma
By John Zippert, Co-Publisher
Shomari Figures, the Democratic candidate for the new 2nd Congressional District in Alabama, was the headline speaker at yesterday’s rally and strategy session in Selma, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the signing by President Lyndon B. Johnson of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965.
Figures is the candidate selected by the Democratic Primary in April 2024 to run for the new Congressional District that stretches from Russell County at the Georgia line and goes to Pritchard, in Mobile County, almost at the Mississippi line. This district was created after a five-year legal battle between voters in the district and the Alabama Legislature to create a second Congressional district in the state that could elect a Black congressional representative.
The U. S. Supreme Court ruled, using Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, that Alabama’s 27% Black population deserved two districts, out of the seven in Alabama, that could elect a Black congressperson. Figures won the Democratic primary and will face Caroleene Dobson, a white attorney from Troy, Alabama, who is well funded and supported by ALFA and other right-wing groups in Alabama.
Figures is the son of Michael and Vivian Figures of Mobile County, both of whom served in the Alabama State Senate. Vivian being named to and later elected to the seat that Michael held until his untimely death from a brain aneurism.
Alabama’s 7th district incumbent Congresswoman Terri Sewell sent a video tape to the meeting, since she was working in Washington, D. C., to commemorate the passage of the 1965 VRA and urging passage of the John Lewis Voter Advancement Act which would restore the full strength of the VRA.
In his remarks in Selma, Shomari Figures said, “I have to come to Selma, even though it is not in the new 2nd. Congressional District, because all Black people in political office or running for political office, owe a debt to the courageous people of Selma and surrounding areas, that can never be repaid.” He also thanked Hank and Faya Rose Sanders for their continuing work on voting and civil rights and their friendship with his family.
Figures said,” This is one of the most important Congressional races in the nation. We can take a district from the Republicans and put it in the Democratic Party’s column, which will affect the overall control of the House of Representatives. This will be important in determining what legislation gets through the next Congress.”
“This is not a coronation. I know that just because we won the Democratic nomination, does not mean that we will win the General Election on November 5th. We have a lot of campaigning to do in the twelve counties of the new district. We are running against a rich candidate who is well funded with campaign contributions of her own and others. We did not get into this to cpme out in second place!” ,said Figures.
Other speakers at the rally included Charles Steele of SCLC who explained that “Freedom ain’t free, and we have to continue fighting for it and things like the Voting Rights Act!”
Joe Reed, long-time President of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC) said he has been working all of his life to place Blacks in every chamber of government from City Hall to the White House. Reed warned, “If you listen to Trump, he says he is going to abolish the Constitution and we will not have to vote anymore. Abolishing the Constitution means abolishing the 13th. Amendment, which freed the slaves. Does he intend to take us back into slavery. Listen closely to what he is saying.”
Reed told the story of trying to get an old Black lady to vote. “In an election you have to vote. She told me that she would pray for me. I had to tell her in elections they do not count prayers – only votes!’
Two youth speakers spoke, Micah Thomas and Azali Fortier, why made the point that young people must participate and vote. Rebecca Marion of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee also made clear that voting was a right that had been fought for at the cost of people’s lives and that everyone who is eligible must vote.
Amin Badat of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, representatives of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and John Zippert, speaking for the SaveOurselves Coalition for Justice and Democracy also spoke.
Faya Rose Toure mentioned that Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum had a stroke and was in the hospital trying to recover. A “Go Fund Me Account” has been set up to help with his medical expenses. Walker has always coordinated logistics for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and other activities in Selma.
Persons interested in supporting the campaign of Shomari Figures for Congress in District 2, may go to this website: figures4congress.com/27?t=JrG5Aj, to contribute.