The vice president said she and President Joe Biden “have put the full power of the executive branch behind our shared effort” while criticizing Republican lawmakers for voting to block passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
“If we all continue to work together, to march together, to fight together, we will secure the freedom to vote,” Harris said.
She called on those gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge “to continue to push the Senate to not allow an arcane rule to deny us the sacred right.”
Harris said Sunday that those who marched across the bridge in 1965 did so not only to ensure the right to vote, but “to ensure all the people of our nation, no matter where they start, have the opportunity to succeed.”
The vice president also met with civil rights leaders while in Alabama, according to the White House. She was joined by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Donald Remy.
The first Black and first South Asian woman to hold the vice presidency, Harris has attended previous anniversary events in Selma.
During virtual remarks at a commemoration service last year, she recalled joining the late Rep. John Lewis — a civil rights icon who helped lead the 1965 march — during the annual walk across the bridge three years earlier. “I was with him on what would be his final walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And I will hold that memory forever in my heart,” Harris said at the time.
This story has been updated on Sunday with remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNN’s Donald Judd contributed to this report.
Harris calls for voting rights legislation before walking across Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday anniversary