Bloody Sunday memorial honors late civil rights giants

Event commemorates day when civil rights marchers were beaten by police 56 years ago

SELMA, Ala. — The commemoration of a pivotal moment in the fight for voting rights for African Americans is honoring four giants of the civil rights movement who lost their lives in 2020, including the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and also highlighting the continued fight for voting rights.

The Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee marks the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday — the day on March 7, 1965, that civil rights marchers were brutally beaten by law enforcement officers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. Lewis , the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the Rev. C.T. Vivian, and attorney Bruce Boynton are the late civil rights leaders being honored on Sunday.

Bloody Sunday became a turning point in the fight for voting rights. Footage of the beatings helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This year’s commemoration comes as some states seek to roll back expanded early and mail-in voting access and efforts have been unsuccessful to restore a key section of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of discrimination to get federal approval for any changes to voting procedures.

“Those of us who are still living, particularly the young, need to take up the challenge and go forward because there is still so much to be done,” said former state Sen. Hank Sanders, one of the founders of the annual celebration.

The event typically brings thousands of people to Selma. However, most of the events are being held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The annual Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast was held as a drive-in event. The outdoor event included some in-person speakers such as Rev. Bernard LaFayette, and the founders of the group Black Voters Matter. Cliff Albright, one of the group’s founders, spoke about the continued need to fight for voter access.

“The movement is not over,” he said as people in their cars honked in support. “What we are asking folks today is for us to commit to that moment, for us to commit to this movement.”

Others spoke via video link or in prerecorded messages. President Joe Biden appeared via a prerecorded message in which announced an executive order aimed at promoting voting access.

KEVIN GLACKMEYER / AP In this March 4, 2012, file photo, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, talks with those gathered on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge during the 19th annual reenactment of the “Bloody Sunday” Selma to Montgomery civil rights march across the bridge in Selma, Ala. Sunday’s Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee was the first without the towering presence of Lewis, as well as the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the Rev. C.T. Vivian and attorney Bruce Boynton, who all died in 2020.