2026-05-18T10:00:00Z / 路透社
2026年5月7日摄于美国阿拉巴马州塞尔玛，埃德蒙·佩图斯大桥——1965年“血腥星期日”事件发生地，当时民权示威者在试图向州议会大厦游行途中遭到执法人员殴打。路透社/凯文·莫哈特
阿拉巴马州塞尔玛 5月18日路透电 贝蒂·斯特朗·博因顿在1960年代还是少女时就载入了史册，当时她是数百名和平抗议者之一，在血腥星期日当天遭到阿拉巴马州州警持警棍殴打——这一天成为民权斗争的转折点。
数十年后，77岁的博因顿重走了历史性的塞尔玛至蒙哥马利游行路线，并加入抗议活动，反对阿拉巴马州在11月中期选举前通过仓促的重新划分选区行动，取消两名黑人议员所持有的国会席位之一。
由共和党主导的南部各州——阿拉巴马州、路易斯安那州、南卡罗来纳州和田纳西州——的此类行动，是在上月最高法院一项裁决削弱《选举权法案》关键条款之后展开的。
路透社在该裁决出台后走访了与《选举权法案》联系最紧密的塞尔玛，并采访了三位民权时代的老兵，他们都表示深感失落。
“我们必须走上街头，必须挨家挨户地宣传，”博因顿解释该裁决的影响并敦促民众投票。她在塞尔玛的家中接受了采访，家里装饰着民权时代的照片。
“血腥星期日”是转折点
1965年3月7日的暴行被全球各地的镜头记录下来，促使民主党总统林登·B·约翰逊派遣军队前往阿拉巴马州，保护前往州首府蒙哥马利的54英里游行队伍。
2026年5月6日摄于美国阿拉巴马州塞尔玛，贝蒂·斯特朗·博因顿手持一篇包含她1965年游行照片的文章。路透社/凯文·莫哈特
博因顿在血腥星期日当天从埃德蒙·佩图斯大桥撤离时年仅16岁，她说自己险些被一名骑马挥鞭的男子击中。当时在场的另一名女性阿米莉亚·博因顿·鲁宾逊后来成为她的婆婆，她的形象出现在那天最令人痛心的照片之一中——被打得浑身是血、不省人事。
四个月后，约翰逊以“塞尔玛的暴行”为由签署了《选举权法案》。他清楚此举的政治代价，并准确预测白人民主党人会大批倒向共和党。
在最高法院的多数裁决中，塞缪尔·阿利托大法官删除了《选举权法案》第2条中的保护条款，该条款数十年来一直被用于推翻被认定存在种族歧视影响的投票地图。
“为投票权而斗争的历史是个人化的，”来自特拉华州、1989年在蒙哥马利创立人权组织的律师布莱恩·史蒂文森说，“每一个在这个社区长大的人，每一个与这个社区有联系的人，都知道被排斥的痛苦，都知道当权者曾千方百计阻止黑人参与民主的程度。”
2026年5月6日摄于美国阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利，平等正义倡议组织创始人布莱恩·史蒂文森在一幅展览前留影，该展览展出了1955年蒙哥马利巴士抵制运动参与者的逮捕照片，这是美国民权运动的关键时刻。路透社/凯文·莫哈特
继续抗争
最初，最高法院的裁决让参与塞尔玛抗议活动直至血腥星期日的芭芭拉·巴奇感到“我们当年所做的一切都毫无意义，毫无价值”。
后来，作为民权遗址导游的巴奇想起了数十年前在密西西比州遇到的一位88岁老人。看到她的车牌来自塞尔玛所在的达拉斯县，老人深受触动。
她说，老人将她的手放在自己胸口，并感谢她让自己在去世前获得了投票权。
民权活动家法亚·罗斯·图尔在1970年代搬到塞尔玛开设律师事务所，被这里的运动历史所吸引。这座拥有1.8万人口的城市80%以上都是黑人。
2026年5月6日摄于美国阿拉巴马州塞尔玛，曾在1983年协助通过法院下令的立法重新划分选区的律师法亚·罗斯·图尔在办公室留影。路透社/凯文·莫哈特
她的律师事务所接待台摆放着选民登记表格和样本选票。
办公室附近有一个以活橡树遮荫的墓地，里面有一座维护良好的南方邦联纪念碑，上面点缀着分离主义旗帜。图尔认为这些旗帜是反民主的，称它们代表了白人至上主义思想的延续。
2026年5月6日摄于美国阿拉巴马州塞尔玛的老活橡树公墓，一名内战中阵亡的南方邦联士兵的墓碑上装饰着南方邦联旗帜。该市属公墓内有一块名为“邦联圈”的私人一英亩地块，由美国邦联女儿会维护……阅读更多
她说，她敦促黑人与广泛关注美国民主状况的全国性团体合作。
“在《选举权法案》通过之前，美国根本没有民主，”她说。
阿拉巴马州的重新划分选区行动
黑人选民占阿拉巴马州选民总数的四分之一。然而，该州目前没有黑人政治家担任全州公职。
2024年，阿拉巴马州选民首次选举两名黑人议员进入国会，分别是连任第八届、选区包括塞尔玛和伯明翰部分地区的泰丽·休厄尔，以及 newcomer肖马里·菲格尔斯，其选区包括蒙哥马利。两人都是民主党人。
2026年5月8日摄于美国阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利，美国众议员肖马里·菲格尔斯（D-AL）在州议会大厦外留影。路透社/凯文·莫哈特
共和党白人占据该州其余五个众议院席位。
阿拉巴马州总检察长史蒂夫·马歇尔是共和党人，在一份声明中表示，最高法院的裁决承认南方已经发生变化。“为不同时代设计的法律无法反映当下的现实，”声明称。
阿拉巴马州共和党人将菲格尔斯的席位作为中期选举前全国范围内重新划分选区行动的目标之一，民权领袖和专家表示，这一行动可能会削弱南部地区黑人的政治权力和代表权。
如果阿拉巴马州、路易斯安那州和南卡罗来纳州和田纳西州一样通过新的选区地图，那么最高法院裁决后的重新划分行动将至少取消四个以黑人为多数或 plurality 的选区。
在5月11日的一段视频声明中，马歇尔表示，他的工作是“让立法机构处于最佳法律位置，以绘制一张对共和党有利的7:0的国会选区地图”。
马歇尔没有回应路透社的置评请求。
菲格尔斯在距离1965年马丁·路德·金向游行队伍发表演讲的议会大厦台阶不远的地方接受路透社采访时表示，自那时以来阿拉巴马州取得了进步，但还不够。他说，没有《选举权法案》的保障，进一步的进展充满不确定性。
“马丁·路德·金曾一直警告说，进步不会自动到来，”菲格尔斯说，“它之所以发生，是因为人们推动、人们战斗、人们争取、人们要求、人们挺身而出、人们抗议。”
Civil rights veterans see history repeating after high court guts Voting Rights Act
2026-05-18T10:00:00Z / Reuters
The Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” attack in which civil rights demonstrators were beaten by law enforcement as they attempted to march to the state capitol, stands in Selma, Alabama, U.S., May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
SELMA, Alabama May 18 (Reuters) Betty Strong Boynton marched into history as a teenager in the 1960s, when she was among the hundreds of peaceful protesters attacked by club-wielding Alabama state troopers on Bloody Sunday – a day that marked a turning point in the struggle for civil rights.
Decades later, at 77, Boynton retraced the route of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march and joined a protest against Alabama’s plans to eliminate one of two seats in Congress held by Black politicians through rushed redistricting drives ahead of the November midterm elections.
Such efforts by Republican-led southern states – Alabama as well as Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee – follow a Supreme Court ruling last month that gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
In the wake of that decision, Reuters visited Selma, the city most associated with the Voting Rights Act, and spoke to three veterans of the civil rights era who described feeling a deep sense of loss.
“We’re going to have to get out there in the streets. We’re going to have to go door-to-door,” explaining the decision’s impact and urging people to vote, Boynton said. She spoke from her home in Selma, which is decorated with photos of the civil rights era.
‘BLOODY SUNDAY’ WAS A TURNING POINT
The brutality on March 7, 1965, captured in footage that was seen around the world, prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, to send troops to Alabama to protect marchers on a 54-mile trek to Montgomery, the state capital.
Betty Strong Boynton holds a copy of an article that includes a picture of her marching in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, U.S., May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Boynton was 16 when she ran from the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, and said she narrowly escaped a whip-wielding man on horseback. Another woman who was there, Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was depicted in one of the most searing photos of that day – beaten bloody and unconscious – would go on to become her-mother-in-law.
Four months later, Johnson, citing “the outrage of Selma,” signed the Voting Rights Act. He knew the political cost, accurately predicting an exodus of white Democrats to the Republican Party.
In the majority ruling for the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito stripped out protections in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which had been used for decades to overturn voting maps deemed to have racially discriminatory impact.
“The history of struggle for voting rights is personal,” said lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who is from Delaware and founded a human rights organization in Montgomery in 1989. “Every person who grew up in this community, every person who has a connection to this community, knows the pain of exclusion, knows the extent to which people in power have tried to keep Black people from participating in democracy.”
Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, stands for a portrait in front of an exhibit that features the arrest photographs of individuals who participated in the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, a key moment the civil rights movement in America, in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
FIGHTING ON
Initially, the Supreme Court ruling made Barbara Barge, who took part in Selma protests leading to Bloody Sunday, feel “that what we did was nothing. That it had no merit.”
Then Barge, who works as a tour guide to civil rights sites, remembered a chance encounter decades ago with an 88-year-old man in Mississippi. He was moved to see her car license plate was from Selma’s Dallas County.
He placed her hand on his chest, she said, and thanked her for giving him the right to vote before he died.
Civil rights activist Faya Rose Toure moved to Selma in the 1970s to open a law firm, drawn by the history of the movement. The city of 18,000 is more than 80% Black.
Faya Rose Toure, a lawyer who helped secure a court-ordered legislative redistricting in 1983, stands for a portrait at her office in Selma, Alabama, U.S., May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Her law firm’s reception desk is stocked with voter registration forms and sample ballots.
The office is near a cemetery shaded by live oaks with a well-maintained Confederate memorial dotted with secessionist flags. Toure sees the flags as anti-democratic, saying they represent the endurance of white supremacist ideas.
A Confederate flag decorates the tombstone of a Confederate soldier killed in the Civil War in the Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama, U.S., May 6, 2026. A private one-acre plot known as the “Confederate Circle” is located within the city-owned cemetery and is maintained by the United Daughters of the Confederacy through… Read more
She said she urges Black people to work with national groups that are broadly concerned about the state of America’s democracy.
“Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, there was no democracy in America,” she said.
ALABAMA AND THE REDISTRICTING PUSH
Black voters make up a quarter of the electorate in Alabama. Yet no Black politician currently holds statewide office in the state.
In 2024, Alabama voters for the first time elected two Black members to Congress, returning Terri Sewell, whose district includes Selma and parts of Birmingham, for an eighth term, as well as newcomer Shomari Figures, whose district includes Montgomery. Both are Democrats.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-AL) poses for a portrait outside the state capitol, in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., May 8, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
White Republicans hold the state’s five other House seats.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, a Republican, said in a statement that the Supreme Court decision was an acknowledgment that the South has changed. “Laws designed for a different era do not reflect the present reality,” the statement said.
Alabama Republicans have targeted Figures’ seat as part of a broader nationwide redistricting push ahead of the midterms, an effort civil rights leaders and experts say could diminish Black political power and representation across the South.
If Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina join Tennessee in passing new maps, the redistricting that followed the Supreme Court ruling will eliminate at least four districts with a majority or plurality of Black voters.
In a video statement on May 11, Marshall said his job was “to put the legislature in the best possible legal position to draw a congressional map that favors Republicans 7-0.”
Marshall did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Figures, speaking to Reuters within sight of the capitol steps where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the marchers in 1965, said Alabama has made progress since then, but not enough. Without the guardrails of the Voting Rights Act, further gains are uncertain, he said.
“Martin Luther King used to always warn that progress never rolled in on the wheels of inevitability,” Figures said. “It was something that happened because people pushed, people fought, people asked for it, people demanded, people stood up, people protested.”