Thousands pack Selma bridge after march anniversary

SELMA, Ala. - Thousands of people have crowded on and around the Edmund Pettus bridge, commemorating bloody clashes 50 years ago in Selma between police and demonstrators during the civil rights struggle.

Associated Press reporters at the scene in Selma said thousands jammed shoulder to shoulder, many not moving as they held up signs and some chanted or sang hymns. They said some groups managed to cross earlier.

"Black lives matter, all lives matter," read one sign raised in the crowd, which was commemorating the anniversary.

Police estimated at least 15,000 to 20,000 people were present.

On March 7, 1965, police beat and tear-gassed marchers at the foot of the bridge in Selma in a spasm of violence that shocked the nation. The attack help build momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year.

Sunday's event comes a day after President Obama spoke to thousands.

"So much of our turbulent history -- the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war, the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow, the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher -- met on this bridge," President Obama said.

The president spoke immediately after Rep. John Lewis, a leader of the Selma march who was brought down by police truncheons -- his skull fractured -- that day in 1965.

"There's still work left to be done," Lewis said. "Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America."

The shadow of enduring discrimination touched the event as the president addressed his government's investigation of the Ferguson, Missouri, police department.

The investigation, Mr. Obama said, "evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the civil rights movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing's changed. What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it's no longer endemic, or sanctioned by law and custom. And before the civil rights movement, it most surely was."

The Justice Department concluded this past week that Ferguson had engaged in practices that discriminated against the city's largely black population. The department also declined to prosecute the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson last year, sparking days of violent protests and marches.

Former President George W. Bush shared the platform during speeches that preceded a symbolic walk across the bridge by Mr. Obama, his wife Michelle, and more.

"Fifty years from 'Bloody Sunday', our march is not yet finished," Mr. Obama said. "But we are getting closer."

In:
• Alabama