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60th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday Highlights Ongoing Fight for Voting Rights

Commemorations honor the sacrifices of civil rights activists and emphasize the continued struggle against voter suppression.

FILE - An Alabama state trooper swings a club at John Lewis, right foreground, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala., March 7, 1965. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Amelia Boynton is aided by people after she was injured when state police broke up a demonstration march in Selma, Ala., March 7, 1965. Boynton, wife of a real estate and insurance man, has been a leader in civil rights efforts. (AP Photo, File)
Marchers in Montgomery, Alabama, at the culmination of the Selma to Montgomery March, on March 25, 1965.
FILE - Annie Pearl Avery, left, poses for a photo with Vice President Kamala Harris before walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in 1965, Sunday, March 3, 2024, in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Overview

  • Bloody Sunday, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement, occurred on March 7, 1965, when peaceful marchers were violently attacked by state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
  • The march led by figures like John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. ultimately resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, though challenges to voting rights persist today.
  • The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibit featuring Spider Martin’s restored photographs, which documented the Selma marches and brought national attention to the brutality faced by activists.
  • Black women played a critical but often overlooked role in organizing the marches, providing logistical support, and advocating for voter equality through grassroots efforts.
  • This year’s commemorations include a bipartisan congressional delegation, events at historic sites, and calls to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to address modern voting restrictions.