Representative Mike Kelly

SELMA, Ala. — U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, was one of more than 100 members of Congress to attend the The Faith and Politics Institute’s 2015 Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery March, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 last weekend.

“We’ve come an awful long way (since then),” said Kelly of Butler.

Kelly flew to Birmingham, Ala., on Friday morning, and attended the first event at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were killed in 1963 by a bomb placed by members of the KKK.

He attended several events on Friday and Saturday in Montgomery and Birmingham, and got a chance to visit the Brown Chapel in Selma, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached a few times and where civil rights activities were planned.

On Sunday, he attended a big event in Selma commemorating Bloody Sunday, where police beat and teargassed marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.

Kelly said he chose to attend the pilgrimage to commemorate what happened and what has happened since then.

“Without paying close attention, things like this could happen again,” Kelly said.

Additionally, he said events like this are a good way to reach across the aisle, which he said he does often.

“It’s become too partisan,” Kelly said.

Kelly took one of his grandchildren, 9-year-old George, to the events.

“I think he got a tremendous education out of this,” Kelly said.

Kelly said his grandson was confused as to why anyone would want to just kill four girls. He said George asked if the attack and others were like things ISIS in the Middle East are doing now. Kelly told him that what happened in the 1960s was a form of terrorism.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” Kelly told him.

George also got to lay a wreath at the Civil Rights Memorial.

He said, if possible, he would like to go to the event annually and bring a different family member.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The section required jurisdictions that had a history of blocking people from voting or registering to submit election rule changes to the federal government.

In February, a bill in Congress called the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015 was presented, which would restore that section.

Kelly said the court made its decision, and said the act is still in effect, but that particular section is likely no longer necessary. However, he said a conversation about the section still can be had.