Bloody Sunday in Selma is sacred. Bloody Sunday was made sacred on Sunday, March 7, 1965, when 600 or so people crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were marching to Montgomery to protest the brutal murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Perry County, Alabama and the ongoing denial of Black voting rights. Alabama State Troopers and local law enforcement beat people bloody. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
Bloody Sunday is sacred because there was a sacrifice in blood. Bloody Sunday is sacred because the sacrifice happened on Sunday. Bloody Sunday is sacred because the struggle for freedom was knocked so far down but did not stay down.
Faya and I moved to Selma in the fall of 1971, some 5½ years after Bloody Sunday occurred. We immediately recognized the sacredness of Bloody Sunday. I had participated in the last leg of the Selma to Montgomery March but not the Bloody Sunday March. Still, as a student at Talladega College some hundred miles away, I could feel the sacredness of Bloody Sunday. Faya was at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina when Bloody Sunday occurred, but she could feel the sacredness of Bloody Sunday from 560 miles away. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
When we two Black lawyers with Harvard Law degrees first came to Selma, we wondered why no one was commemorating Bloody Sunday in Selma. In fact, we wondered why people did not seem to perceive the sacredness we felt so deeply and that had drawn us here. We, along with a very few others, would go to the bridge and commemorate Bloody Sunday.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was the organizing group for the Bloody Sunday March as well as the Selma to Montgomery March, began celebrating the Selma to Montgomery March every five years after Dr. Joseph Lowery became president of the organization in 1977. As I recall, the first reenactment of the Selma to Montgomery March was in 1980, some 15 years after Bloody Sunday. Even then, only a few of us commemorated Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
With the help of various people, Bloody Sunday became an annual commemoration of note. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. came each year for Bloody Sunday. Others began to come. We would gather on Sunday afternoon and march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Various churches would sponsor programs. Bloody Sunday grew.
After Bloody Sunday grew bigger in symbolism and importance, Selma Mayor Joe Smitherman, who was mayor in 1965 when Bloody Sunday occurred, decided to take over the commemoration. He selected a Selma civil rights leader from the 1960s to front the takeover effort. When it became clear that people would protest such a move, they backed off. We have to fight to protect our sacred causes. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
In 1993, 30 years ago, Faya Rose Toure and I conceived of expanding the activities around Bloody Sunday. Faya called it the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute became the lead vehicle. Twenty-First Century Youth Leadership Movement (21C) was deeply involved. In fact, 21C members were virtually the only individuals in attendance at the first Bridge Crossing Jubilee in March of 1993. These expanded activities were on Saturday. Eventually, the Jubilee grew to include activities on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
In the year 2000, President Bill Clinton came to Selma and spoke at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. By that time, tens of thousands came to Selma each year around the Bridge Crossing Jubilee with Bloody Sunday at the core. It was nationally recognized as sacred. It became and has been the largest annual Civil Rights and Voting Rights gathering in the nation for more than two decades. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
Senator Barack Obama made his first trip to Selma in 2007. In the year 2008, Faith and Politics, which came to the Bridge Crossing Jubilee each year as one of three stops on their Alabama Civil Rights Tour, decided that they should take over the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. They invited a few leaders from the Bridge Crossing Jubilee to Washington, D.C. to discuss how we could work together. However, there were no discussions. A couple of people from Faith and Politics walked in and said in so many words that we did not know what we were doing and they would handle all matters related to the Bridge Crossing Jubilee from that time on. At the time, they only had one Black person on their board though Congressman John Lewis was featured as the face of the organization. We decided to protest, and they backed off. We have to stand up for and respect that which is sacred.
One of the most recognized companies in the world offered to fully fund the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. However, they wanted its name to lead all things. It would have been (“The Company’s Name) Bridge Crossing Jubilee.” Although it is very hard raising money to support the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, we said, no way. Bloody Sunday, which is at the core of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, is too sacred to be commercialized. We have to honor that which is sacred. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
In 2015, Faith and Politics again decided to take over the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. It was the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. They decided to move the Bloody Sunday March from Sunday to Saturday. They had President Obama coming on Saturday, and they planned to commemorate Bloody Sunday, which took place in Selma, in Montgomery instead. We had invited the president for Sunday for the Bloody Sunday March. We fought efforts to move Bloody Sunday to Saturday. We even challenged President Obama. The sacredness was too great to sacrifice. We could not allow Bloody Sunday to move to Saturday. That violates the sacredness of Bloody Sunday.
We worked to compromise with them, but Faith and Politics only kept one of its eight commitments. The history and sacredness of Bloody Sunday is not of significance to them. We said that we wanted everyone from little children to the highest officials to come to Selma at any time. But we strongly opposed anything that violates the sacredness of this moment and event. For some, the only thing sacred is power and position and money. President Obama came on Saturday, and we worked with them. But 25,000 more people came on that Sunday in 2015 than on Saturday because Bloody Sunday is so sacred.
I am afraid that we will have to fight again. The sacredness of Bloody Sunday is worth fighting for to ensure it remains sacred. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
EPILOGUE – Everything sacred to us is not sacred to others. We must know what is sacred to us. We must protect that which is sacred to us from both friend and foe. We must be resolute in protecting that which is sacred. Bloody Sunday is sacred.
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