US President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of knowing all of American history, “with the good and the bad”, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in memory of “Bloody Sunday”, the brutal repression of the civil rights march 58 years ago, Reuters and News.ro reported.

“History matters,” the Democratic president emphasized in his speech on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where police brutally attacked hundreds of peaceful activists on March 7, 1965.

That “Bloody Sunday” traumatized the United States and months later led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, a federal law guaranteeing everyone the right to vote.

These demonstrators “forced America to face the truth and act,” said Joe Biden, who now accuses the opposition of wanting to “hide the truth” of history.

“We can’t just pick and choose what we want to know,” he stressed, amid a debate raging over the teaching of slavery and segregation in American schools. “We should know everything, good and bad,” added the head of the American state.

Concerns about access to voting in the United States

As of 2020, several conservative states have passed laws banning the teaching of “critical race theory,” a university concept that has become a common formula for anti-racism programs.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has presidential ambitions, recently defended a ban on African-American history in high schools, accusing it of “indoctrinating” young people.

In his speech, Joe Biden called for “paying attention” to voting rights, which he believes are threatened by the Supreme Court, which has partially struck down the Voting Rights Act, as well as “dozens of restrictive laws” passed in conservative states.

The 80-year-old US president, whose political career is largely based on the support of African-American voters, urged Congress to pass a sweeping electoral reform blocked by Republicans without much chance of being heard in the legislature.