(CNN) – At the commemoration of the historic Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed guilt for not joining the Alabama demonstration nearly half a century ago.
The vice president also used the opportunity to lament the dozens of voting restrictions proposed by states in the last couple of years and argued against a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that's now being heard in the Supreme Court.
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In his speech, Biden said he watched the first bloody march as a senior in college. The scene, he said, gave him heavy convictions.
"I regret - and although it's not a part of what I'm supposed to say - I apologize it took me 48 years to get here," Biden said, shortly before joining a crowd to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. "I should have been here. It's one of the regrets that I have and many in my generation have."
The vice president, walking arm-in-arm with notable civil rights activists such as Rep. John Lewis, led the crowd of thousands across the same bridge where police met protestors with brutal force nearly 50 years ago.
"Most of us thought that the hatred the viciousness the bigotry that we'd seen in our own states had at least subsided," Biden said, reflecting on watching the protests. "What we saw was entrenched hostility and prejudice coming face to face with undaunted courage and resolve - a resolve so powerful that it inspired the Congress and the nation to support the Voting Rights Act just four months later."
Biden was elected to the Senate just seven years out of college at the age of 29. Leading up to his first run, he said, "nothing shaped my consciousness (more)...than what happened here in Selma."
This appearance was Biden's first at the tribute. President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Selma in 2007 when they were both seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden, himself, has not ruled out a 2016 presidential bid.
While Obama did not accompany Biden on Sunday, the president made headlines when he mentioned Selma and other landmark events in the civil rights movement during his second inauguration speech in January.
"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us are created equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall," he said.
On March 7, 1965, police clashed with nearly 600 marchers in Selma, forcing them back from the Edmund Pettus Bridge with batons and tear gas. On a day that later became known as "Bloody Sunday," police said they were enforcing then-Gov. George Wallace's ban on demonstrations.
Carrying on the march, the demonstrators ultimately made it to the state's capital, Montgomery, on March 24. The vice president applauded those who took part in the demonstrations, saying they helped "liberate the soul of the United States of America."
"You lost the battle that day, but you won the war," he told the audience at the foot of the bridge. "And in the process you did something that could never be changed: you won the hearts and minds of your fellow citizens all across America."
In a separate speech earlier in the day, Biden added the fight still continues in 2013, pointing to a series of voting laws proposed during the 2012 election and warning of the current case at the Supreme Court involving the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The court will decide this year on challenges to Section 5, a part of the act that gives the federal government open-ended oversight of states and localities, mostly in the South, with a history of voter discrimination. As the law now stands, changes in voting laws and procedures in all or parts of 16 covered states must be "pre-cleared" with Washington.
Read more: Justices offer split views on Voting Rights Act enforcement
Conservative justices on Wednesday suggested it was a constitutionally unnecessary vestige of the civil rights era. The provision was reauthorized by Congress in 2006 for another 25 years and officials in Shelby County, Alabama, subsequently filed suit, saying the monitoring was overly burdensome and unwarranted.
But advocates for the provision say it's necessary to protect voting rights. Biden on Sunday lambasted the idea that Section 5 was even up for debate.
"Strom Thurmond voted for its reauthorization, and yet it's being challenged in Supreme Court of United States of America as we stand here today," Biden said.
The vice president also highlighted other states' attempts to pass voter identification laws last year during the election. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 32 states have some sort of voter identification law. Those states include Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, places that also must get Voting Rights Act clearance before enacting new laws.
Democrats have said that such laws are politically motivated and intended to suppress the minority vote, given that fewer people in minority groups carry government-issued IDs. Republicans, meanwhile, make the case that such laws prevent fraud and protect the integrity of the system.
Biden acknowledged that Americans have changed during the last five decades but emphasized "we've come too far together to turn back." And in closing his remarks earlier Sunday, the vice president reiterated his regret of not traveling to walk in solidarity with the demonstrators in 1965.
"I still feel just a little bit of guilt; I was old enough," he said. "I could have been here. I should have been here, 48 years ago."
– CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
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This man is an embarrassment to the office of the Vice President of the U.S.A. Political pandering at it's worst. Oh wait, the comment about "Their gonna put y'all back in chains" was even better/worse. Anyway, I thought Michelle O'blamer was the VP. Who's this guy?
Maybe in another 40 years he'll apologize for the debt he left our great grandchildren.
But aren't we lucky to know he's making amends for something that happened in 1965.
Great job.
Efficient government.
Wonderful person.
Will he say sorry for the 3 generations of blacks languishing in ghettos as a direct result of Dem policies? Look at Chicago, Trenton, Philly, Boston and Cleveland and tell me how sorry Biden is. What difference is it if you live in a shack and accept your bread from a Southern Dem slave masters hand or sit in a ghetto and get your bread from a Dem politician? None. The only use a Dem has for a minority is during elections, than its back to their shacks until next time. Hispanics had better watch out or they will find themselves fighting blacks for the same ghettos. So Biden gave a speech, nothing will change and he got into his limo and drove off.
What is Big Deal about Black History? Slavery and Selma happened in 19 and 20th Century and they were part of Continuous Evolution of Human Civilization. Get Over it.
Every time a social issue comes up, we have to play it out until we get past the close-minded and the bigoted to the light at the end of the tunnel. True Americans understand the meaning of American liberty and equality. The others claim to be Americans while standing against everything American stands for. Slavery, women's suffrage, desegregation, gay marriage – all are issues covered in the Constitution. When will we, the people, ever learn that equality isn't just for those we agree with.
@Rudy NYC. Amen to both of your comments. Republicans like to conveniently forget that all those old "Democrat/DixieCrats" (KKK and all) moved to the Republican party back in the 60's after their votes AGAINST the voting rights act were defeated.
Anyone who's studied even a little bit of American history (particularly AA history) knows that that's also when a majority of African Americans moved to the Democratic party. So before someone reminds me that Dr. King was a registered Republican, don't bother. Had he lived I'm sure he would have moved to the Democratic party just like all of the other Civil Rights leaders like Congressman John Lewis, Dr. Joseph Lowery, Dr. C.T. Vivian, Joshua Williams, etc. did.
I was glad to see VP Biden walking with our beloved Civil Rights leaders yesterday and if anyone is foolish enough to think that we no longer need the Voting Rights Act, they need only look at the 2012 election with it's voter suppression attempts and listen to the foolish words of Supreme Court Justice Scalia's last week. If anything, we may need to extend the Voting Rights Act to a few more states...
I apologize for the Debt G W Bush left our country
Rudy- Any Republican would have had to wrestle with Biden to get access to a mike to pander...
To those of you who say foolish things like "Get over it.", clearly you have never been in any African American's (or any person of color's) shoes in the 21 century. If you had you would know that discrimination and racism is alive and well and living in these United States. We don't expect you to GET IT but for goodness sake, please don't bother to pretend that you do or that you even care...
Dave- The Bush debt was NOTHING compared to the mountain piled on us by Obama.
"And with the passage of the Voting Rights Act those sourthern "Dixiecrats" jumped ship to the Republican party. Today they are known as 'christian conservatives."
Indeed they are, Rudy. Known as, that is. GW liked to coin them as "compassionate" as well.
Big Apology? I thought he would at least mention the hair plugs.
PatheticCNN wrote:
What is Big Deal about Black History? Slavery and Selma happened in 19 and 20th Century and they were part of Continuous Evolution of Human Civilization. Get Over it.
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Well, in that case let's just do away with a host cultural celebrations: Mardi Gras, St Patricks Day, Columbus Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc. Black History in America dates back to at least the 1600s with the slave markets established in Jamestown, VA.
BTW, I am shocked to hear a right winger supporting the concept of Evolution in any form.
OMG! Biden is a joke. These people will stop at nothing to use up their word quota. Surely, OBAMA must see that Biden needs to retire...
The blame game is what is truly alive and well in some of these posts. Now, there are those who are attempting to place the blame for slavery on the Republicans, only to divert from the conversation that our Vice President has again said something really jerky.
Impeach him.
He injured our nation with his incompetence, malfeasance, and ambivalence, willingly, recklessly, and with specific intent to harm.
As a Delaware resident, I APOLOGIZE for Joe Biden!
Apologize for what ? Something that happened 45 years ago is no longer an issue and a total waste of breath.
Joe you're about as guilty as I am for not joining the demonstration in 1965. What a hypocrite.
@Ancient Texan–Wanna bet?
These comments are all a direct reflection of why nothing can ever get done in this country. Just FYI.
Ancient Texan wrote:
Rudy- Any Republican would have had to wrestle with Biden to get access to a mike to pander...
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The amount of scorn and disdian shown by the right wing to one of our most fundamental civil right, voting, is appalling. Specifically, I am thinking of Justice Scalia's remarks last week duirng the hearing on the Voting Rights Act. He's an activist jurist who needs to be removed.
What a tool.
Ancient Texan
Dave- The Bush debt was NOTHING compared to the mountain piled on us by Obama.
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Most all of the debt that has been accumulated during the Obama administration are a direct result of Bush policies.
On that Bloody Sunday in March of 1965 the US Congress was represented by one lone member:
Congressman Ken Hechler – WV
We need more like him in Congress today.