60 years after Bloody Sunday, legacy of martyrs’ guides fight for voting rights

By Safiya Charles, SPLC

Sixty years ago today, hundreds of ordinary Americans came together for one of the most historic protests in this nation’s history. They met in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge with an inflexible mission: to get the Voting Rights Act (VRA) passed and enshrine Black people’s right to vote.

These people — churchgoers, teachers and young teens — who would become known as civil rights “foot soldiers” stood together in the face of hatred and brutal attacks from their fellow citizens and state authorities.

Sixty years later, the VRA they marched, bled and died for is under attack.

This afternoon, Southern Poverty Law Center President and CEO Margaret Huang spoke to a crowd of advocates, supporters and congressional representatives who gathered at the SPLC’s Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to honor 40 civil rights martyrs whose names are inscribed on the Memorial’s circular granite table. The Memorial is installed in a public space just outside the Civil Rights Memorial Center (CRMC), across from the SPLC’s headquarters in Montgomery. The crowd also honored the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who co-led the Bloody Sunday march.

Learn more about the history of Bloody Sunday.

Learn more about black history in our galleries.

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