Metro Atlanta Groups Ride To Selma For 57th Anniversary Of Bloody Sunday
ATLANTA, Ga. (CW69 News at 10) – CW69's Valencia Jones joined several Metro Atlanta labor and voter advocacy groups on Sunday for a bus ride to Selma for the 57th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. This commemorates the March 6 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police brutally attacked civil rights marchers in 1965.
Organizers shared why the march for civil rights continues nearly 60 years later.
"The purpose of this trip is so we can see certain things and know certain things about our history," said Bishop Greg Fann, the chairman of the Voter Empowerment Collaborative.
In March 1965, demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge were attacked by members of several law enforcement agencies as they marched for voting rights. Voting rights advocates say the fight continues. "If we don't do what we're doing, it's going to turn around," said Wendell Carlisle, one of the advocates.
"If you go up to that Capitol like I do, you will see that we are under attack," said Georgia AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Yvonne Brooks, speaking to the group.
While en route, the buses stopped in Montgomery at the homes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy. The homes are located near the historic Dexter Avenue-King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. King preached. The groups also toured museums and memorials, before arriving in Selma, where Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to the assembled masses at the ceremony.
After a lengthy wait, the crowd followed the steps that marchers have taken for decades, as they walked across the iconic bridge.
March organizers reflected on the journey before them.
"I want to thank God for allowing us to come down here to be able to be a witness to what happened in 1965 and understand the struggle that those people had and the struggles we still have today," Bishop Fann said.
Fann and others attending said they are encouraging the next generations to continue the "good fight."
"We can effect change. We can change the way that this country is going. We can make progress," said Chandler Steele.
The annual pilgrimage to Selma is hosted by the Voter Empowerment Collaborative. The organization was created by Love In Action Ministries and founded by Rev. Albert Eugene Love, who dedicated his life to educating voters and died of pancreatic cancer in 2019.
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