'Bloody Sunday' Attack at Edmund Pettus Bridge - Selma, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 32° 24.384 W 087° 01.144
16S E 498207 N 3585483
Describes the beginning moments of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March.
Marker is at the intersection of Broad Street and Water Avenue.
Waymark Code: WMNMA7
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 04/02/2015
Views: 4
Marker text:
A voting registration campaign in 1965 turned tragic Feb. 17 when an Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion. It prompted a protest march from Selma to Montgomery that triggered a milestone event in the Civil Rights Movement.
On March 7, John Lewis and Hosea Williams led a group of 600 African Americans from Brown Chapel AME Church six blocks and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. State Public Service Director Al Lingo ordered armed troopers to attack the marchers, hospitalizing 50.
Two weeks later, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy led a court-approved march with federal protection. It covered 54 miles and reached the State Capitol on March 25. In a speech before 25,000, King said "the arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Racists killed Boston minister James Reeb on March 11 and Detroit housewife Viola Gregg Liuzzo on March 25.
The marker was unveiled in March 2015 during the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Selma Voting Rights Movement
Marker Name: 'Bloody Sunday' Attack at Edmund Pettus Bridge
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the Alabama Tourism Department.
Marker replaced a previous one called "The Selma Movement"
More info: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965
Date Dedicated / Placed: 2015
Marker Number: Not Listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alabama history please include that in your log.