Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee

From Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee Website:

ABOUT US

Affectionately called The Jubilee, it was founded in Selma, Alabama as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Our commitment is to the commemoration and preservation of the spirit of the struggle for the right to vote in this country and the world. Our goal is to inspire people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds to respect and appreciate the power of their vote.


This annual event in Selma, Alabama, commemorates "Bloody Sunday," which occurred March 7, 1965, when a group of about 525 African American demonstrators gathered at Browns Chapel to demand the right to vote. They walked six blocks to Broad Street, then acrossthe Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they were met by more than 50 state troopers and a few dozen possemen on horseback. When the demonstratorsrefused to turn back, they were brutally beaten. At least 17 were hospitalized, and 40 others received treatment for injuries andthe effects of tear gas. The attack, which was broadcast on national television, caught the attention of millions of Americans and became a symbol of the brutalracism of the South. Two weeks later, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and 3,200 civil rights protesters marched the 49 miles from Selmato the state capital, Montgomeryan event that prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act.Every year on the first weekend in March, the Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates both the bloody confrontation at the Pettus Bridge andthe march from Selma to Montgomery that followed. Events include a parade, a Miss Jubilee Pageant, a mock trial, and a commemorative march to the bridge. Every five years, celebrants continue all the way to Montgomery.