Changes in tone, intent mark 60th Anniversary Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee

  For the last six decades, people have returned to the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge each year. They have come to remember the pain and suffering early Civil Rights Movement foot soldiers endured.

  The 60th Anniversary Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, a weeklong event, commemorated March 7, 1965, when marchers were brutally beaten by white Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies as they tried to cross the bridge en route to the state Capitol in Montgomery to demand voting rights for Black people.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march

  This Sunday, leaders from throughout Alabama and the entire country will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March and the infamous Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was a momentous occasion and needs memorializing. 

Sketches #1962: We must remember Jimmie Lee Jackson

  We must remember Jimmie Lee Jackson. He is a critical force in our history. He is a key reason we celebrate and commemorate the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Let me tell you about Jimmie Lee Jackson. We must remember Jimmie Lee.

  It was February 18, 1965. Rev. James of Orange of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was in the Perry County Jail in Marion, Alabama. The word was out that the Ku Klux Klan intended to get him out of jail late at night and murder him. The local voting rights movement leaders called a night mass meeting and a rare night march. Marches were very dangerous in the daytime and even more dangerous at night. We must remember Jimmie Lee.

Fifty years after Dr. King’s assassination: I remember most how he lived

  I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was walking across the Harvard Law School Yard. It was dust dark. A fellow Harvard Law School classmate was walking in the opposite direction. He just said, “They killed him.” He didn’t say who they killed, but I knew from the tone, inflection and weight in his voice. It was April 4, 1968. The “him” was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  It has now been 50 years since that fateful day. I can still feel the intense pain. I can still feel the exploding hurt. I can still feel the profound loss. Still, I don’t want to focus on the terrible death on that one day. Rather, I want to focus on the life Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived during the 14,324 days starting January 15, 1929, his date of birth, and ending April 4, 1968, his date of death. It was truly an extraordinary life.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1604: Come share with me!

  Come share with me. If you participated in the 25th Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, then you can remember with me. If you didn’t participate, you can share vicariously with me.

  The Bridge Crossing Jubilee was massive. The 2018 theme was "Many More Bridges To Cross". There were more than 50 events over a four-day period. Not every event is officially sponsored by the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. However, more than 40 of the 50-plus events are official Jubilee events. Still, all events are part of the Jubilee in spirit. The great majority of these events are free.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1602: The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is back in full force!

  The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is back in full force. This is the 25th Jubilee. Twenty-five years is a long time. When this Sketches is published, Jubilee will be about a week away. The Jubilee starts March 1, 2018. But this Jubilee is different in important ways.

  The Jubilee draws tens of thousands each year. One year it drew more than 100,000. It is the largest annual civil rights gathering in the world, and it all happens right here in Selma, Alabama, a city of 20,000. However, people come from across America and faraway places such as Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and other countries in North America.

Alexandra Werner-Winslow: State legislators attack the right to protest

  Fifty-two years ago Friday, famed civil rights judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. issued a momentous federal court ruling that prohibited Alabama Gov. George Wallace and a local sheriff from interfering with voting rights marchers.

  It came 10 days after Bloody Sunday, the day protesters began marching to the Alabama Capitol only to be turned back and brutally beaten by state troopers and a sheriff’s posse as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

  Four days after Johnson's ruling, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 3,000 marchers across the bridge and then on to the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery – their right to protest upheld, their path unimpeded by law enforcement.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1552: Come with me as we share the continuing Jubilee experience!

  Come with me as we share the Bridge Crossing Jubilee on the 52nd Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I cannot share everything because I could not attend all of the more than 40 events. I don’t even have space to share all I participated in over these five days. Come with me as we share the continuing experience of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

  Let’s start on Thursday of last week. I returned from a Senate session in Montgomery. Two television reporters had set up interviews about the Jubilee. I agreed to do the interviews in spite of the potential for negative publicity. I met them at Tabernacle Baptist Church. Rather than respond to the controversy, I tried to address the big picture: the Jubilee would go on; the forty-plus events would go on as planned; and only one event, the Jubilee Festival, would be moved.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1551: Standing on history is never a party

  I could not believe my eyes. I just could not be seeing what I saw. It was a Facebook message posted by the Mayor of Selma and forwarded to me. The Facebook message said that the Bridge Crossing Jubilee was a “four-day party for Senator Sanders and his wife.” After all the years of hard work, this was unbelievable. I could not believe my eyes.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1550: The past, present and future that binds us all together

  There is a nexus of the past and the present and the future. The past is very important. The present is extremely important. The future is critically important. Each is separate, and yet all are tied together. The nexus of past and the present and the future binds us together.

  The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is just two weeks away, commencing Thursday, March 2nd and running through March 6th. The National Voting Rights Celebration is already upon us. The future is rushing headlong toward us, and we don’t know what to do. The nexus of the past, the present and the future binds us together.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1498: Jimmie Lee Jackson and the tragedy that was a catalyst for change

  Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old Black man who lived in Perry County, Ala. became a central figure in voting rights history. Some say he went to a nighttime voting rights rally on February 18, 1965 in Marion, Ala. Others say he did not go to the rally but was waiting at Mack’s Café to take his mother and 82-year-old grandfather home. There is no doubt, however, that all three were in Mack’s Café.

  State troopers had busted the head of Jimmie Lee’s grandfather, Cager Lee, and blood was running down his face. Viola Jackson, his daughter, tried to help. A trooper attacked her. Jimmie Lee, who was unarmed, tried to help his mother take the 82-year-old Cager Lee to a doctor. A state trooper shot him twice in the stomach, and he started running. Other state troopers beat him as he ran. There is no doubt that these events were the forerunners of the Bloody Sunday March and the Selma to Montgomery March. There is no doubt that these events were critical catalysts on the road to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1473: A giant passed our way

  Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson passed on the night of August 25, 2015. She was 110 years of age. I saw her driver’s license when I visited her just three days before she passed. It read DOB August 18, 1905. I saw the 1910 U.S. Census report showing her as 4 years of age. She was 110 although many perceived her as 104. She was a giant in the struggle for voting rights in particular and human rights in general.

Morris Dees: Fifty years later, we must rededicate ourselves to the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers' cause

  Fifty years ago today, I was standing near the steps of the Alabama Capitol when Dr. King spoke at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

  It was a triumphant moment.

  The courage of those on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday had awakened the conscience of the nation and inspired people of good will from around the country to join in a great cause.

Senate Sketches #1449: How we made it over: 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

  When our children’s children ask, “What mean ye these stones? You can tell them how you made it over." These are words from the Biblical Book of Joshua. They refer to the way the children of Israel miraculously crossed over the Jordan River on dry land to enter the Promised Land. I cite this passage to ask the question, “What mean ye these happenings at the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the 1965 Voting Rights Act?” I also want to tell how we made it over.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1445: Bloody Sunday has triumphed!

  The sacredness of the Bloody Sunday March is preserved. Hallelujah! Bloody Sunday is secure. Hallelujah! Bloody Sunday has triumphed. Hallelujah!

  We feared that the sacredness of Bloody Sunday would be forever diminished. The looming threat was a second march in Selma on Saturday, March 7th and another march in Montgomery on Sunday, March 8th. These marches would have adversely impacted the sacred Bloody Sunday March and all of the Bloody Sunday events in many minds. But Bloody Sunday has triumphed.

Morris Dees: MLK’s words just as relevant today

  This Martin Luther King Day is a special one. We're on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March, perhaps King's most triumphant moment, and the film Selma has brought him vividly to life.

  Dr. King's speech at the conclusion of the march is remembered for its soaring rhetoric, for King's declaration that segregation was on its deathbed and for his unshakable belief that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.