World

On Sunday, Selma, a city in the southern U.S. state of Alabama marked the 60th anniversary of a key event in the civil rights movement, when a group of African American civil rights activists were brutally beaten by police on March 7, 1965, as they attempted to march to Montgomery to demand the right to vote. The marchers were protesting the refusal by white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote, and the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and voting rights organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion city. The attack which became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ shocked the U.S., and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965. The annual commemoration pays homage to those who fought to secure voting rights for Black Americans and brought calls to recommit to the fight for equality.

Even as U.S.-led peace negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine recently faced setbacks, talks between Washington and Kyiv are set to take place this week in Saudi Arabia. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.