Attendees stand and turn their backs on presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg as he talks in the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama on March 1, 2020.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Several congregants in a historically black church in Selma, Ala. made their feelings about Michael Bloomberg very clear on Sunday when they stood up and turned their backs on him while he was speaking. The former New York mayor attended service at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama on the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when police attacked civil-rights marchers. Bloomberg spoke about the fight for civil rights and voter suppression but around 10 minutes into his speech, churchgoers began standing up and silently turned their backs on the former mayor. Around 10 people remained standing until Bloomberg stopped speaking.
Things were awkward for Bloomberg even before he began speaking. When Reverend Leodis Strong introduced Bloomberg he recalled that the former mayor first declined an invitation to speak at the church, claiming he had a busy campaign schedule. “I think that it’s important for Mr. Bloomberg, Mayor Bloomberg, to hear from you, listen to you, to learn from you,” Strong said. And then just as Bloomberg was about to speak, Strong chimed in once again. “Let me just say this. I think it’s important that he came,” Strong said. “And it shows a willingness on his part to change. And I like that, and I think that that is important.”
Bloomberg has been repeatedly criticized on the campaign trail for implementing the stop-and-frisk policy during his time as mayor which disproportionately targeted black and other minorities. Bloomberg apologized for the policy when he was entering the presidential contest.
“I was hurt, I was disappointed,” Strong said as Bloomberg looked. “I think it’s important that he came, and it shows a willingness on his part to change.”
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