"Bloody Sunday" - 50 Years - Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, AL - Commercial Commemorations on Waymarking.com

This state historic marker was placed in 2015, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the "Bloody Sunday" attack on peaceful civil rights marchers by AL state troopers that sent 50 markers to the hospital with serious injuries. Network news footage of the march and attack generated a giant swell of outrage in America, and led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The state historic marker reads as follows:

"BLOODY SUNDAY ATTACK
AT EDMUND PETTUS BRIDGE

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"

Anniversary Year: 2015 Year of Event, Organization or Occurance: 1965 Address: US 80 at Edmund Pettus Bridge Selma, AL Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
1. Original photo if possible. A narrative of your visit.

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Date Logged Log   07/27/2017 Benchmark Blasterz visited it