Today marks the 50th anniversary of one of the key moments in the civil rights movement, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his team led marchers to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. President Barack Obama, along with members of Congress, will be in the city to commemorate the occasion.
The White House said that Obama will speak at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The administration has also provided a forum for those who were at the march and is inviting people to talk about how they plan on honoring their legacy with #MarchOn.
King joined the effort to make sure that African Americans could vote. On March 7, 1965, thousands of marchers gathered at the bridge to begin a trek to Montgomery, but they were met with state troopers, who beat many of them. Two days later, King led them back to the bridge, but he turned around due to a court order.
On March 21, he led them back again, this time with protection from the Army and policemen. Around 25,000 people arrived in Montgomery on March 25. In August 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.
The march was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Selma.
According to AL.com, there will be 94 members of Congress in Selma, including U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who took part in the original March. The trip is part of the Congressional civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama, an annual tradition in its 15th year.
“I'm honored, pleased, delighted to be back in Alabama,” Lewis said when he arrived. “I grew up in this state, only a few miles from Troy. It's good to come back here and see all the changes that have taken place.”
There was some criticism that there were not many Republicans making the trip, but TIME reports that Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Majority Leader, will make the trip.
It’s expected that at least 100,000 people will gather at the bridge to hear Obama’s speech.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com