California Gov. Gavin Newsom attacked Alabama’s “rollback of progress” while visiting Montgomery to commemorate the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination during his tour of red states.
Newsom, whose tour includes stops in Mississippi, Arkansas and Florida, stopped by the Rosa Parks Museum and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church during his visit to Alabama’s capital on Tuesday.
“This spot is also extraordinary because this is the site so much of the organization was done and the organizational constructs of the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” the governor said in a video posted to his Twitter account:
Newsom said the museum is “a reminder of not only the moral courage of leaders like Dr. king and Rosa Parks, but all the hard work that was done after those moments, those iconic moments we remember.”
The California governor’s tour coincides with his launch of a political action committee to boost Democratic candidates in red states.
Newsom said activists today should draw inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement in combatting “the rollback of progress” in red states, including Alabama.
“And at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to be required of us to address so much of the right’s regression, so much of the rollback of the progress that we’ve all enjoyed – the national advancement of rights in the last 50 years,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to build a movement to counter what’s happening in red states across this country.”
A spokeswoman for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey could not immediately be reached for a response to Newsom’s comments.
