‘Bloody Sunday’ Commemoration Continues in Selma

Events commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” and the march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery continued Sunday in the same place where civil rights activists paved the way for equal voting rights a half century ago.

President Barack Obama and other leaders delivered spirited speeches in Selma on Saturday in remembrance of the violence that broke out on March 7, 1965, when police tear-gassed and beat peaceful marchers, who gatherer to protest voting restrictions and the fatal shooting of a black activist by police weeks earlier.

“Fifty years from ‘Bloody Sunday,’ our march is not yet finished. But we are getting closer,” Obama said Saturday to a crowd estimated to be more than 40,000 strong.

Crowds gathered to watch Sunday morning’s service at Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the march to Montgomery began in 1965. Inside, speakers — including outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, Martin Luther King III and Jesse Jackson — expressed their optimism about steps the country has taken toward equality, but also said there was still work to be done.

“There’s something wrong with us purporting to support and practice democracy all over the globe and yet suppressing democracy at home,” said Martin Luther King III at the service. But he also echoed the sentiment of resolve and hope spread by his late father. “We’re gonna be alright, we’re not there yet,” he said.

Holder focused on the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision that struck down the section of the celebrated Voting Rights Act that once required states with a history of voting suppression to get permission from the Justice Department before amending any voting laws. Holder said it is clear that voting rights are “under siege,” but vowed that he and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that “all Americans — young or old, rich or poor, famous or unknown; no matter who they are, where they’re from, what they look like, or whom they love — has an equal share in the American Dream.”

A rally Sunday at the foot of the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge will serve as a send-off for a symbolic march over the structure at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday — and then for a longer walk for those who plan to replicate the journey of 50 years ago.

On Monday morning marches will set off for the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery with plans to arrive on Friday afternoon — the same spot where, five decades ago, Martin Luther King Jr. assured a crowd of 25,000 that racial equality and justice would eventually prevail.

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