Listen Live
WERE AM Mobile App 2020

LISTEN LIVE. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

News Talk Cleveland Featured Video
CLOSE

 

 

Selma Commemorates 50th Anniversary Of Historic Civil Rights March

Pool

Getty

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 tens of thousands of 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.”

CLICK HERE to read story

Thousands Remember Selma’s ‘Bloody Sunday’ 50 Years Later  was originally published on praisecleveland.com