After Selma

 Edmund Pettus Bridge is silent, quietly bearing the weight of history. Last month on July 26, the man who lead the march for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, crossed the bridge one final time in a casket draped with the star spangled banner.(Photo below.)

John Lewis, once a 25 year old civil rights activist  who led the march for voting rights at Selma in 1965, went on to represent Georgia's 5th district five times and was the sitting Congressman when he died a month ago. 

But what happened After Selma? In John Lewis' own words - he was always in some kind of fight - for freedom, equality, basic human rights, the fighting never ceased. Selma was just the beginning. That is the truth for millions of African Americans and people of color. Although the marches at Selma, more than half a century ago led to passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, racism and racists still find ways to enact legislation and infiltrate the corridors of power to suppress the representation and voice of minorities.

In the light of upcoming elections, Loki Mulholland's documentary After Selma is essential watching for all American citizens. The 45 minute documentary, is an excellent primer on how the contemporary voting system is rigged to disenfranchise minorities. It is time well spent in the last few months before a highly contested Presidential election where we are getting exposed to more novel, underhanded techniques like taking away sorting machines from USPS to delay mail-in votes and no one bats an eye-lid as if it is the most common thing to do before an election.

The world's greatest democracy is just as corruptible as any other democracy in the world. American exceptionalism is not the anti-dote to the systemic rot in U.S's political machinery. The rot and racism was never in-your-face like it has been in the last few years. But practices like gerrymandering, unethical Voter ID laws and a bigoted criminal justice system biased against the people of color leading to their mass incarcerations have always been working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the racial imbalance and discrimination intact.

Here is a gif I clipped out of the film which explains how gerrymandering works in a few seconds

Loki Mulholland, the director is the son of white civil rights activist and freedom rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. He had made an award winning documentary on her younger years as an activist and sit-in protestor called An Ordinary Hero: The True Story of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. This along with his other award winning documentaries - The Uncomfortable Truth and Black, White, & Us are available on Amazon Prime (US.)