Speakers at the 2025 Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast called for resistance to what they see as the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back Civil Rights earned 60 years ago.
The Unity Breakfast is one of the centerpieces of the annual Jubilee that commemorates Bloody Sunday, when peaceful marchers were turned back by police and white civilians as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The images of the beatings led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Piecing the Unity Puzzle for our Freedom” was the theme of this year’s Unity Breakfast, and speakers made it clear that they see the key to solving the puzzle is resistance to anti-DEI and what they see as antidemocratic executive orders emanating from the White House.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear received a standing ovation when he told the audience at Craig Field Airport and Industrial Authority Sunday morning that their “collective voice can save the day.”
“The (Trump) administration wants to make diversity a dirty word,” Beshear said.
U.S. Rep. Shomari C. Figures described himself as a “humble beneficiary” of the sacrifices made by the Foot Soldiers 60 years ago. But he said the fight isn’t over.
“We have to fight … but there is a playbook that was deployed 60 years ago that showed what we have to do,” Figures said.
“We have to stay unified,” Figures said. “In Washington, we will continue to push back, to work through legislation to push back this administration. We must push back through registration, education and motivation to go vote. Because we would not be here if people hadn’t taken advantage of the opportunity the Foot Soldiers almost died for us to have.”
Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States, agreed. “Freedoms are under attack,” Stewart said. “No calvary is coming (to save our freedoms). We are the calvary.”
Now is a “time for unity” and “a time to save democracy,” said Faya Rose Toure, founder of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee. “We just fight with everything in us to save this democracy, not just for a few, but for all of us,” she said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said that members of the Democratic Party “endured blood not shed in vain” on Bloody Sunday 60 years ago. “We must keep laws in place that we fought for,” Martin said. “We must protect American voters. We will never give up the fight for justice.”
The Trump Administration has declared “war on Civil Rights,” said Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.
“We must reverse these vicious attacks on the advancements made,” Morial said. “Last time we did it when there were no Black lawmakers. Half the nation’s Blacks lived in poverty. We are better off now. We need the will to make change.”
Morial said, “Today is a recommitment to say we will not rest or sleep or take a nap until the Voting Rights Advance Act signed into law.”
Time if of the essence, according to Black Voters Matter cofounder LaTosha Brown. “If we allow what is happening now to normalize, then we affirm it,” Brown said.
“Time is up for hate and fear and racism and sexism,” said Hank Sanders of Selma, former state senator and chairman of the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute. “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Dr. James M. Mitchell, president of Wallace Community College, was the emcee of the event.
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