National
An Open Letter to Faith and Politics Institute Concerning Bloody Sunday, from Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders
February 8, 2015,
I appreciate your bringing a group of congresspersons and other dignitaries each year to Selma and other places in Alabama for Bloody Sunday and related events. Every person in a leadership position ought to have this experience so that they may better understand how the right to vote was forged with blood and lost lives and suffering and sacrifice and struggle. Thank you for exposing these dignitaries to this historic and sacred struggle. We welcome you and all. We are especially glad that President Barack Obama is coming for we also invited him and the First Family.
Faith and Politics, I am extremely concerned. I considered writing you on several occasions but held back. However, after Representative John Lewis talked to a reporter, who then contacted me, I had to write. Other leaders of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee have written you in years past, but you never answered a single letter. I do not expect an answer to this letter, so I am making it an open letter.
The Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It should be a time of great unity, but you have shattered that possibility. The great challenges to the right to vote also demand unity. These challenges include the gutting of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act; the wave of voter photo ID laws, which are modern-day poll taxes; the proof of citizenship laws, which are modern-day literacy tests; and the many and varied other schemes that suppress and deny the right to vote. We should be united, but your actions divide us.
This Commemoration must be more than a celebration. Many workshops and other activities were scheduled for Saturday, March 7th, to forge a more effective effort to restore the Voting Rights Act and expand voting rights generally. Your actions disrupted these critical work sessions.
The reporter I mentioned, Mary Orndorff Troyan, said one of the reasons you wanted a march on Saturday was to ensure that it was a “dignified” march. Faith and Politics, the Bloody Sunday March has been reenacted each year since the seventies. No one has ever said that it was not dignified. Was the Bloody Sunday March not dignified when President Bill Clinton came to Selma in 2000, as a sitting president, for the 35th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday? Was the March not dignified when President Barack Obama came as Senator Obama to Selma on Bloody Sunday in 2007? Was the March not dignified when Vice President Joe Biden came in 2013?
A Competing March
Over the years, many leaders have come to Selma on their own to participate in this sacred pilgrimage – not seeking glory or status. These include members of the Kennedy family, other prominent political and social leaders, and many more. Were the Marches not dignified when these leaders made the pilgrimage to participate in the Bloody Sunday March? Your actions cannot be about the dignity of Bloody Sunday, for if they were, you would not be having another march on a day other than Bloody Sunday.
I recall that some years ago Faith and Politics asked representatives of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee to come to Washington, D.C. to meet. You paid for their tickets, hotel rooms and other expenses, and they came. You proposed taking over the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. In response, we proposed that Faith and Politics co-sponsor the Bridge Crossing Jubilee along with the National Voting Rights Museum, SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) and other organizations. You said that you would only be a sponsor if you could be the sole sponsor. You conveyed the impression that we were not competent, and that is why you had to do it by yourself. This was not about faith or service or competence. It was about power and politics – and control.
Even though we are volunteers, those of us who have led the Commemoration of Bloody Sunday for 40-plus years have been competent enough not only to accomplish the event each year, but to grow it into the largest Civil Rights Event in the country and, according to a national publication, one of the 100 greatest national tourist events. Your actions do not seem to be about competence but about control, power and politics.
The reporter told me that Congressman John Lewis said that certain unnamed national leaders tried to get into the front lines last year. One of those leaders was SCLC National President Charles Steele. I want to remind you that SCLC was the sole sponsor of the original Bloody Sunday March in 1965 and has been a co-sponsor of the Bloody Sunday March Reenactments since the seventies. The President of this organization certainly has a right to be among those on the front lines. SCLC President Steele told me that last year Faith and Politics tried to stop him and his wife Annette from getting on the front lines. When they entered the lines anyway, Congressman Lewis pointed his finger and said, “This will not happen again. I will get another venue next year.” Now we see what that venue is.
I am sorry to say that the issue of who will be among those on the front lines has recently become a bone of contention. Faith and Politics has insisted that only members of the Faith and Politics delegation be on the front lines. We have insisted that some of the nearly 600 other individuals who were also on the Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965 be included. In 2013 when Vice President Biden was here, Faith and Politics wanted to allot only 30 places for survivors of Bloody Sunday with 270 places for members of their delegation, including congressional staff members. When an agreement was worked out that it would be half and half, Faith and Politics then had the Secret Service give virtually every place to members of the Faith and Politics delegation. It seems that you value status, power and money far more than you value blood, sacrifice, struggle and history.
Commemoration of Bloody Sunday is big enough for everyone. It has grown from a few of us crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the afternoon of Bloody Sunday in the seventies to about fifty events over five days each year. Your actions do not seem to be about dignity or competence but about power and politics and control.
In the 17 or so years that Faith and Politics has been coming to the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, not once have you organized a March or contributed in any way. You raise millions of dollars by claiming to sponsor the Bloody Sunday March but never paid for even a chair, a porto-toilet, water or anything else. You never organized other people to come if they were not in your delegation. You just show up and insist on privilege even though you refused to be a co-sponsor because you could not be the sole sponsor. This is about your privilege and power. Bloody Sunday is about sacredness, sacrifice and struggle.
Setting out to Destroy Bloody Sunday
It appears to me that Faith and Politics has set out to not only diminish but to destroy Bloody Sunday. You not only scheduled another march on Saturday in Selma but you scheduled a march and rally in Montgomery on Sunday during the afternoon when the sacred Bloody Sunday March takes place in Selma. It would have been so simple to hold your events in Montgomery on Saturday and join the events in Selma on Sunday. However, the arrogance of power has caused you to try to diminish the sacred Bloody Sunday March and Commemoration and change history.
Faith and Politics, you are not even representative of the struggle. From viewing your web page earlier this year, the makeup of your Board appears to be 14 Whites and two African Americans, including the Chief of Staff of Congressman John Lewis, who is a member emeritus. This is the organization that insisted on being the sole sponsor of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and the Bloody Sunday events. This is the organization that is insisting on moving Bloody Sunday to Saturday after 40-plus years of commemoration on Sunday. This is the organization that has not contributed anything to organizing these events over the years. Sadly, I do not see the exercise of faith in your actions but only the force of power and politics.
I hope that you will reflect on the facts I have shared in this open letter and on the history of Bloody Sunday from 1965 to the present. It took great faith and courage for all of those nearly 600 people to face the great dangers that awaited them at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in order to fight for the right to vote. It will require great faith and courage today to restore these same rights that were won in 1965 only to be lost in 2013 [Supreme Court decision].
Sincerely,
Hank Sanders
Alabama State Senator
Business
Car Wash Workers Cope with Lingering Impacts of ICE Raids
WAVE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS — Hundreds of car wash workers across Southern California have been detained in federal immigration raids, leaving lingering impacts on families and communities. Mario, a 33-year U.S. resident and father of three, was arrested at a Santa Ana car wash last August and held for two months.
LOS ANGELES — Mario relied on his job in the car wash industry to raise his three children. It was during a shift at a Santa Ana car wash last August that he was arrested by federal agents, taken to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center and held for two months.
“They made me sleep on the cold floor for a week without a blanket, a toothbrush or basic medical care for the injured man next to me,” Mario, a 33-year resident of the United States, said at a news conference earlier this summer at Inglewood’s Crenshaw Imperial Car Wash, which is now closed after being raided by federal agents.
Mario, who is being identified only by his first name for safety reasons, is among hundreds of car wash workers detained across Southern California in the year since the Trump administration began an aggressive immigration crackdown in the region, according to the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center.
News of raids by masked agents has faded from the headlines, but the effects still linger for those caught in the crosshairs. Family members have been deported or left to languish in detention, and many who remain live with the fear of being hunted down by immigration officers.
At least 373 car wash workers have been detained at car washes across Southern California since the raids began last summer, according to figures compiled by CLEAN. The group’s data also shows federal agents raided or attempted to raid at least 106 car washes in communities across Los Angeles, Orange County and surrounding areas, including Inglewood, Culver City, Westchester, Bell and Whittier.
CLEAN, an advocacy group founded in 2007, has been fighting to protect car wash workers from exploitation and unsafe conditions. When the raids began last year, the group sprang into action, working around the clock to help detained workers and provide their families with legal and financial support.
“We gathered our information from workers, managers, and owners of the car washes that were being raided,” CLEAN Deputy Director Andrea Gonzalez said. “We also gathered information from rapid response teams who were on the ground responding to the raids.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s findings.
Mario said he was one of seven workers at the Harbor Blvd Car Wash detained on the same day last August, but the only one who has been released. He said he refused to sign deportation papers and is fighting to stay in the United States, a process that has drained his family emotionally and financially.
“Being released is not the same as being free,” he said.
During Mario’s detention at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, his wife and children struggled to cope with his sudden absence while fighting for his release, his wife Alejandra said.
“The employer gave us a video showing my husband being taken away under arrest, treated worse than a common criminal, with chains binding his legs, arms and waist,” Alejandra said. “It wasn’t right.”
The experience of a car wash worker named José was recounted at the news conference by the Rev. Andy Schwiebert of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, who said agents “took him” from the La Cienega Car Wash last August.
José’s wife is a U.S. citizen, Schwiebert said, and José had a pathway to gaining citizenship before he was detained. By the time a judge ordered his release on bond, the car wash had shut down, Schwiebert said, leaving José without a job.
“These raids did not just target workers; they destabilized families, congregations, workplaces and entire communities,” Schwiebert said.
The administration’s aggressive enforcement operations have continued across the nation in the months since José’s and Mario’s detention, with ICE arrests in July surging to their highest rate so far under President Donald Trump.
Last month, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three in Houston. Less than a week later, an immigration officer fatally shot 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.
Back in Inglewood, Mario said he was grateful to share his story and that, even though he was released, his experience in detention stays with him.
“I still feel frustrated and traumatized,” Mario said, “because my life is no longer the same as it used to be.”
Ernesto Ureño is a Loyola Marymount University journalism major and intern at Capital & Main, a nonprofit publication focused on inequality. It is published here with permission.
Based on reporting by Wave Community Newspapers.
Art
Misty Copeland Shapes Ballet’s Tomorrow
THE POSITIVE COMMUNITY — Misty Copeland will curate the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival, a two-week event in New York City from August 4-16. This role allows her to influence the future of ballet by showcasing a wide range of dancers, choreographers, and companies. The festival will present both established and contemporary works, blending classical traditions with new artistic expressions.
This summer, Misty Copeland will step into a different kind of spotlight. Instead of taking center stage as a dancer, she will help determine what audiences see onstage as curator of the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival. Taking place August 4 through August 16 at The Joyce Theater in New York City, the two-week celebration will bring together dancers, choreographers and companies representing a broad spectrum of ballet. The festival gives Copeland an opportunity to share not only her appreciation for ballet’s traditions, but also her vision for its future.
Copeland understands better than most how powerful a ballet stage can be. Her historic career with American Ballet Theatre changed the conversation about representation in one of the world’s most traditional performing arts. When she became the company’s first Black woman to reach the rank of principal dancer, her achievement carried significance far beyond a personal milestone. It gave young dancers of color a new image of what was possible and challenged the industry to reconsider who belonged at the center of ballet.
That history informs the perspective she brings to the festival. Copeland has spent much of her career moving between performance, mentorship, advocacy and storytelling. Her curatorial role allows her to bring those interests together by creating a program that does not treat ballet as a museum piece. Instead, the festival presents dance as an evolving language capable of carrying classical traditions into new cultural and artistic territory.
Audiences will encounter a mixture of established works and contemporary creations during the festival. Classical ballet vocabulary will share space with choreography that pushes dancers toward different physical, emotional and theatrical possibilities. The result is intended to give audiences a broader understanding of the art form while demonstrating that tradition and innovation do not have to be competing forces.
The lineup also provides an opportunity to see dancers from different artistic environments. Performers connected to organizations including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Houston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet are among those represented in the festival. Each company carries its own history and artistic identity, making their participation part of a larger conversation about the many ways ballet can be performed and interpreted.
The presence of Dance Theatre of Harlem is particularly meaningful within the larger story of Copeland’s career and the evolution of Black representation in ballet. Founded during a period when opportunities for Black dancers were severely limited, the company helped demonstrate that excellence and classical training could flourish in a Black cultural environment. Its legacy continues to influence dancers and audiences, making its connection to a festival curated by Copeland especially resonant.
The program also reaches beyond a single definition of contemporary ballet. Choreographers with different backgrounds and artistic philosophies contribute to an evening that can move from recognizable classical structures to works shaped by modern dance, theater, popular culture and new approaches to movement. That diversity reflects a generation of artists who increasingly see ballet not as a rigid vocabulary but as a foundation from which they can explore.
For New York audiences, the festival offers something that is increasingly valuable: the opportunity to experience outstanding dancers in an intimate setting. The Joyce is known for presenting dance in a theater where audiences can see movement and artistry up close. That environment can make a familiar ballet work feel newly personal while allowing experimental pieces to communicate with unusual immediacy.
Copeland’s role as curator also sends a message about the importance of artistic leadership. The people who select performers and choreography help determine which stories receive attention and which artists receive opportunities. By bringing a range of voices into the festival, Copeland is using that responsibility to broaden the conversation around ballet. Her choices can introduce audiences to artists they may not otherwise encounter while encouraging longtime ballet followers to look at the form from a different perspective.
The 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival ultimately arrives at an important moment for the art form. Ballet is carrying centuries of tradition into an era defined by changing audiences, broader representation and increasingly adventurous choreography. Copeland’s festival reflects that transition. For two weeks in August, The Joyce will become a meeting place for the familiar and the unexpected—a celebration of where ballet came from and a preview of where it may be going. And with Misty Copeland helping shape the conversation, the future of ballet promises to be as expansive as the dancers who are defining it.
Based on reporting by The Positive Community.
Community
As Part of Your Back-to- School Checklist, Vaccinate
POST NEWS GROUP — Vaccines protect your household and also limit the spread of diseases such as measles and polio. The higher the vaccination rate in a community, the greater the protection for everyone – especially the most vulnerable.
Berkeley Public Health recommends families catch up on immunizations before the new school year begins
Parents, check that your children return to school up to date on vaccinations. If necessary, schedule a visit with your family’s doctor or with the City of Berkeley’s Immunization Clinic to catch up.
Vaccines protect your household and also limit the spread of diseases such as measles and polio. The higher the vaccination rate in a community, the greater the protection for everyone – especially the most vulnerable.
Families are encouraged to:
- Check their child’s vaccination records. Ask their health care provider or check California’s Digital Vaccine Record portal.
- Schedule a check-up with your child’s doctor.
If your child doesn’t have a health care provider, you may be able to access free vaccinations through the City of Berkeley’s Immunization Clinic. Make an appointment by calling (510) 981-5350, emailing phmailbox@berkeleyca.gov, or booking online.
See what shots are required for pre-kindergarten or TK-12th grade, and check that your kids have all their recommended vaccines.
FREE VACCINE CLINICS AUG. 4-13
Children without health insurance or whose insurance doesn’t cover vaccines can get them for free:
City of Berkeley Immunization Clinic
West Berkeley Family Wellness Center
1900 Sixth St.
Hours: Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
Closed 12 p.m.–1 p.m.
Make an appointment between Aug. 4–6 or Aug. 11–13 for back-to-school vaccine clinics:
- Call: (510) 981-5350
- Email: phmailbox@berkeleyca.gov
- Book online
Children 18 years and under are eligible for free City vaccines if they are:
- Medicaid-eligible
- Uninsured
- Underinsured (insurance does not cover vaccines)
- American Indian or Alaska Native
If you are unsure whether you or your child is up to date, the City of Berkeley Vaccination Clinic can help review records and provide recommended vaccines.
FAMILY WELLNESS RESOURCES
Vaccines are just one of the many public health services you can access at the West Berkeley Family Wellness Center. The center is home to the Women, Infants, and Children program, nutrition support, case management services, and a variety of family support services, plus free classes throughout the year.
Vaccinations aren’t just for kids. Throughout adult life, everyone should keep up with their vaccination needs. See recommended vaccines for adults.
Get a healthy start to the school year. Check your child’s vaccinations. Make an appointment with your doctor or get free vaccines at the City clinic.
VACCINE INFORMATION AND FAMILY RESOURCES
- City of Berkeley Immunization Clinic
- TK–12 school vaccine requirements:
- Family support services:
Get trusted information about the City of Berkeley by bookmarking berkeleyca.gov, subscribing to our newsletter, and following us on Bluesky and Instagram.
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Misty Copeland Shapes Ballet’s Tomorrow
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