Scores of people converged on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in downtown Selma, Alabama, Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ march. The famous attack by law enforcement on marchers pushing for voting rights left late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., with serious injuries and ultimately helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was among the elected officials and civil rights leaders who joined marchers. He told a church congregation in Selma Sunday morning that there is a movement afoot to “whitewash our history.” Joining him were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, NAACP President Derrick Johnson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and others.
Locals said Selma, in the heart of Alabama’s “Black Belt,” has come a long way from the days when Black pedestrians had to lower their gaze when they encountered a white person. But there is still much to do in this era of civil rights rollbacks, they said.
