Leaders and organizers of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery March Commemorations and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee held a news conference recently at the Alabama State House to discuss the upcoming events in Selma being held March 2nd through the 6th.
This year, 2017, marks the 52nd Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the 25th Anniversary of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which began in 1992 and has been held every year since then.
Senator Hank Sanders, one of the leaders of the effort, said: “It is all coming together. This is the largest annual Civil Rights gathering in the country, where tens of thousands come every year. More than one-hundred thousand came on just one day – the Sunday commemorating Bloody Sunday two years ago. It is a massive undertaking, but it is all coming together. When you have 40-50 events, it takes so much of everything: so many people, so much money, so much effort, so much working together to make it happen.”
Dr. James M. Mitchell, President of Wallace Community College Selma (WCCS) and Chair of the Selma-to-Montgomery Commemoration Foundation said: “Rev. William J. Barber II, internationally known leader and founder of the Moral Movement, will be headlining the events on Sunday. No national leader is fighting more effectively to protect the right to vote than Rev. Barber.
He will be speaking at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast at Wallace Community College Selma on Sunday, March 5th at 7:30 a.m., then briefly at Brown Chapel AME Church where the March starts following the breakfast, and at the foot of the Bridge. He will also lead the Selma-to-Montgomery Slow Ride on Monday, March 6th. Other nationally known leaders are participating and will be announced in the coming days. The media is invited to all events.”
There are many educational activities throughout the week, and Wallace Community College Selma hosts workshops and other educational events that are free to the public. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee includes events in downtown Selma, at WCCS, and at other locations across Selma from Thursday, March 2nd through Monday, March 6th.
Rev. Leodis Strong of Brown Chapel AME Church said: “Brown Chapel is a co-sponsor of the events in Selma, and the historic church service is one of the pivotal events of the Bloody Sunday and Selma-to-Montgomery March commemorations and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Brown Chapel’s role in the Civil Rights Movement has been critical, and the Church was a focal point for mass meetings and the starting of the marches in Selma in 1965. All the Bloody Sunday commemorative marches start from Brown Chapel now.”
Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum said: “From time-to- time we do the full March from Selma to Montgomery. This year, we are going to do a Selma-to-Montgomery Slow Ride on Monday, March 6th. The Slow Ride consists of a long line of vehicles making the commemorative journey from Selma to Montgomery.
It begins at 9:00 a.m. in Selma on the Montgomery side of the Bridge and arrives in Montgomery at 11:00 a.m. for an outdoor rally on the Capital Steps followed by a workshop on protecting the right to vote in the Joint Briefing Room on the 8th Floor of the Alabama State House.”
SOURCE: Alabama News – Lillie Dunn
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