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| President Barack Obama, fourth from left, walks holding hands with Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was beaten during "Bloody Sunday," as they and the first family and others including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, left of Obama, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala,. for the 50th anniversary of the landmark event of the civil rights movement, Saturday, March 7, 2015. At far left is Sasha Obama and at far right is former first lady Laura Bush. Adelaide Sanford also sits in a wheelchair. |
SELMA, Ala.
(AP) -- Thousands of people crowded an Alabama bridge on Sunday, many
jammed shoulder to shoulder, many unable to move, to commemorate a
bloody confrontation 50 years ago between police and peaceful protesters
that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
A
day after President Barack Obama had walked atop the Edmund Pettus
Bridge, police said at least 15,000 to 20,000 people had joined the
crush on and around the small bridge. Many came from around the country
for several events commemorating the landmark moment.
William
Baldwin, 69, of Montgomery, brought his two grandsons, ages 11 and 15,
to the bridge Sunday so they could grasp the importance of the historic
march he took part in a half century earlier.
"They're
going to take this struggle on and we have to understand the price that
was paid for them to have what they have now," Baldwin said. "It wasn't
granted to them, it was earned by blood, sweat and tears."
Some sang hymns and others held signs, such as "Black lives matter, all lives matter."
On
March 7, 1965, police beat and tear-gassed marchers at the foot of the
bridge in Selma in a spasm of violence that shocked the nation. The
attack help build momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act later
that year.
Attorney General Eric Holder,
speaking at Brown Chapel AME Church Sunday, drew parallels, without
being explicit, between the events of 1965 and today. He noted that the
"Bloody Sunday" march was sparked by the murder of activist Jimmie Lee
Jackson, "an unarmed, young black man."
"An unarmed, young black man," he repeated.
Annie
Pearl Avery, 71, recalled being arrested on Bloody Sunday as she tried
to get a nurse to the bridge. She said it was one of many times she was
arrested during the freedom rides of the 1960's.
The
nurse was needed, she said, because the young activists were uncertain
if local white doctors were members of the Ku Klux Klan.
"I heard the explosions. I thought it was gunshots. It was the tear gas," Avery said.
Earlier
Sunday, Selma officials paid tribute to the late President Lyndon
Johnson for the Voting Rights Act. The attack on demonstrators preceded a
Selma-to-Montgomery march, which occurred two weeks later in 1965. Both
helped build momentum for congressional approval of the Voting Rights
Act later that year.
Luci Baines Johnson accepted the award on behalf of her father, saying it meant so much to see him honored.
"It
means the world to me to know that a half-century later you remember
how deeply Daddy cared about social justice and how hard he worked to
make it happen," his daughter Luci Baines Johnson said.
An
anniversary march from Selma to Montgomery is set to begin Monday
morning and culminate with a rally at the Alabama Capitol Friday
afternoon.
On Saturday, Obama joined civil
rights leaders and others at the bridge and talked about progress in
race relations since the 1960s. He mentioned recent high-profile clashes
between citizens and law enforcement on the circumstances leading to
fatal police shootings and law enforcement tactics toward minorities.
"We
just need to open our eyes, and ears, and hearts, to know that this
nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us," Obama
said. "We know the march is not yet over, the race is not yet won, and
that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the
content of our character requires admitting as much."
Obama
was joined by others including Georgia Rep. John Lewis - an Alabama
native who was among the demonstrators attacked by law officers on a
march for equal voting rights.
Bishop Dennis
Proctor of the Alabama-Florida Episcopal District said his group brought
five buses to the anniversary commemoration. But he told members not to
come to Selma if they couldn't commit to fighting to restore
protections in the Voting Rights Act that were recently eliminated.
The
U.S Supreme Court in 2013 struck down section 4 of the Voting Rights
Act which required states with a history of minority voter suppression
to get permission from the Justice Department before changing voting
laws.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, speaking at
Sunday's unity breakfast, said the changes in voting laws threatened to
push minority voters backward down the bridge.
"While we are celebrating, there are those that are trying to dismantle what we are celebrating," Sharpton said.
Groups traveled to Selma from across the nation, including five busloads from Nashville.
Gloria
Haugabook McKissack, a retired college history teacher who participated
in lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, was the main organizer of the
trip from Nashville.
"It just grew as people began to hear that we were going to make this journey," McKissack said.
Among those on the buses were some Freedom Riders.
"It's
up to us ... to explain to them what actually happened and why this
march is happening," said Ernest Patton, a Nashville Freedom Rider who
made the trip. "They should walk up to somebody and say, `were you a
part of this 50 years ago?' And get the history."
