Selma At 60: Black Clergy Recall ‘Bloody Sunday’ With Concerns For The Future
Sixty years after John Lewis and hundreds of Civil Rights activists were beaten by the Alabama State Police, thousands returned to Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge to remember one of the bloodiest campaigns of the 1960s.
The event was the highlight of the “Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” which this past Sunday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the march across the bridge.
From Civil Rights veterans and protestors from that time to schoolchildren and a new generation of marchers, people crossed over the old gray span in Alabama over the course of several days, also taking part in a series of lectures, concerts and strategy sessions aimed at restoring voting rights. It also included Sunday services at Selma’s Brown Chapel AME Church.
“Oh God, we thank You for this day. Oh God, bless this bridge crossing,” prayed Civil Rights veteran Dr. Ben Chavis during the walk over the bridge. “Sixty years ago, [Civil Rights leaders] John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Marie Foster, Amelia Boyington, and many, many others, we thank them, Lord, for their sacrifice.”
During the anniversary weekend, there was also a breakfast honoring the “foot soldiers,” who faced constant threats while fighting for the opportunity to vote in Dallas County.
As Chavis prayed, sitting on the bridge were the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Maxine Waters and thousands of young people who had yet been born in 1965.
The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black citizens living in Alabama to register to vote, as well as the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and community organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion.
At the time, Lewis suffered a cracked skull after he was beaten with a nightstick. Police on horseback ran over protesters and young people were bitten by police dogs. Since then, thousands have marched across this bridge in a town that most say is still stuck between yesterday and tomorrow.
But progress has been made. The number of African Americans in Congress has grown, and the highlight of their efforts was the election in 2008 of President Barack Obama, who took part in the 50th anniversary of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York and the House minority leader, also came to Selma for the 60th anniversary. He told those on the bridge: “We stand in support of Civil Rights, we stand in support of racial justice and social justice. They want us to step down, but we want to make it clear that we are not going to step down. We want America to be the best version of herself.”
Rev. Mark Thompson, a Civil Rights activist from New York, helped organize the march on Sunday.
“This is my 25th year as a board member of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” he said.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act last week to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the Supreme Court struck down in 2013 in Shelby v. Holder.
The actual anniversary of Bloody Sunday was March 7. On that date, a bipartisan group of lawmakers walked across the bridge. Rep. Alsobrooks (D-Maryland), Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) joined Sewell during a news conference in Selma on March 7, the actual date of the 60th anniversary.
Alsobrooks came to Selma with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and scholars from Washington, D.C., who are part of the Faith and Politics Institute, which was founded three decades ago and led by the late Lewis, its former board chairman.
The institute has veteran lawmakers and college scholars who travel across the country to study race and work to improve relationships.
While in Alabama, Alsobrooks said she talked to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle, like Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and plans to come back next year.
“I’m honored every year to be a part of the Faith and Politics pilgrimage,” Sewell said. “It’s not just a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s America’s history that we are actually observing.”
Alsobrooks, on her first trip to Selma since being sworn in as a U.S. Senator, said that she is a beneficiary of a generation of courageous people.
“I’m reminded not only of their courage and their foresight, but I am deeply grateful that I am here as a result of their efforts,” she said. “I am here as a result of the efforts of my great-grandmother, who I think about today.”
Akina Sanders Jackson, Executive Director of the Selma Center for Non-Violence Truth and Reconciliation, said Selma’s history is a part of her family’s story.
“My father was at the last leg of the March in 1965 when Dr. King said ‘How long? Not Long,’” she said. “When my parents graduated from Harvard Law School they thought they would be here in Selma for a few years and then move to a big city.”
But Jackson said she and her parents are still living in Selma. When it comes to change, she added, “Time is not always measured in human terms.”
Hamil R. Harris is a veteran journalist and Religion Unplugged correspondent based in Washington, D.C.