March 7, 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomey, Alabama march, known as the “Bloody Sunday.” In 1965 civil rights activists and marchers were beaten by the police while trying to march to Montgomery. The annual event, this year, took place amid persistently growing challenges to Voting Rights that were the foundation of the march. US Civil Rights and Racial Justice Activists and leaders have stressed that the dynamics leading to the ceremonies and gatherings this year have been driven by a mixture of recognition of the accomplishments, fear in face of new challenges, dejection, defiance, and determination for a renewal.
Contrary to the previous years, top US elected leaders did not participate in the annual Bridge Cross Jubilee to address a crowd of thousands. However, congressional leaders have gathered in Selma in remembrance of Bloody Sunday.
This is the fifth Selma Commemoration after the passing of John Lewis, one of the Civil Rights icons and marchers (see Selma: Commemorating the 56th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches; Stacey Abrams Leading the Way to Achieve John Lewis' Dream).
Each year, people make the pilgrimage to walk across the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge, where on March 7, 1965, law officers attacked civil rights activists. The incident became known as Bloody Sunday. The march, planned to be from Selma to Montgomery, was motivated by the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Black man shot by a state trooper after a civil rights demonstration in nearby Marion, Alabama. The late Georgia Congressman John Lewis was one of the leaders of the march.
The commemoration usually includes the march of thousands of people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The violence on the bridge originally named after a Confederate general and a known klansman, shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act by President Johnson in 1965.
On March 7, 1965, John Lewis and 600 other civil rights demonstrators crossed the bridge from Selma for a planned march to Montgomery to protest voting discrimination against Black Americans.
George Wallace, the the Governor of Alabama and a staunch segregationist, sent state troopers to quash the march.
When the peaceful marchers, including youth, refused to turn back, were kneeling and praying, the troopers and sheriff's deputies, some on horseback, attacked, beating people with batons and launching tear gas canisters. Among the serious injured was John Lewis, local activist Amelia Boynton Robinson, and tens of marchers. John Lewis' head was cracked open and Amelia Boynton Robinson was bludgeoned. Two white white civil rights activists, Rev. James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo, who had come to Alabama to support the marchers were killed.
Following the Bloody Sunday, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Jesse Douglas lead the voting rights march to the Montgomery County Courthouse on March 22, 1965.
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"Selma was never just about the past, It's about the future — about whether we will protect what so many fought and died for," he said, adding that "the fight for voting rights was never just about ballots — it was about dignity. And today, policymakers are seeking to steal that dignity, whether by defunding essential programs or undermining our democracy."
Margaret Huang, the president and CEO of Southern Poverty Law Center, told the media that this year is different given the on-going dynamics, saying: "For the first time in years, there will be no federal participation in Jubilee. That's a signal about where civil rights and our legacy sit in this country."
The commemoration came in the period when federal affirmative action programs are threatened, and after the dismantlement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and limiting classroom discussions on race.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, attended and preached in a church in Selma. In preparation for his attendance, Sen. Raphael Warnock said that he must join and follow in the footsteps of Rep. John Lewis, his late parishioner, as this year is among the most pivotal periods in the history of the Unites States of America. “John Lewis understood that participating in our democracy is a sacred undertaking that’s about more than one person’s voice, is really about our humanity, So in honor of John Lewis and the hundreds of brave, faithful protesters who cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, I’m going to continue to fight and keep the faith,” he said in a video statement on March 7, 2025.
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