The 56th Annual Bridge Crossing Commemoration and Jubilee, hosted in Selma each year, will continue as various virtual presentations scheduled Thursday March 4, through Sunday March 7, 2021. The organizers explained that the Jubilee goes global this year as a virtual event to fight COVID-19 and to continue the commitment to commemorate and preserve the spirit of the struggle for the right to vote in this country and the world.
This annual event commemorates Bloody Sunday which occurred March 7, 1965 when a group of more than 500 Black demonstrators gathered at Brown Chapel in Selma to demand the right to vote. The marchers walked to Broad Street to the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they encountered more than 50 State Troopers and other lawmen on horseback. The marchers were brutally beaten when they refused to turn back. The attack on the marchers was broadcast on national television and caught the attention of millions of Americans.
The impetus for this Bloody Sunday march was the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Perry County, Alabama, on February 18, 1965. Jimmie Lee Jackson’s grandfather and mother were involved in a night march in Marion and, along with others, had been attacked by law enforcement. The young Jimmie Lee arrived at a local cafe to take his grandfather and mother to a hospital. He was subsequently beaten, shot and killed by a state trooper.
Approximately two weeks after the March 7 Bloody Sunday attack, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and more than 3,000 others marched from Selma to the Alabama Capital in Montgomery.
There is no admission fee for the general events.
The highlights for March 1-4 include Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Virtual Training, presented by the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation.
The highlights for Friday, March 5, are the Children’s Sojourn, the Mass Meeting and the Freedom Flame Awards; Saturday, March 6 – the Foot Soldier’s Breakfast, various panels and musical experiences, in virtual break-out rooms.
The Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast, scheduled for Sunday, March 7, at 7:30 am at Wallace Community College Selma, will be a drive-in breakfast, featuring a virtually presentation by U.S. President Joe Biden.
There is a $25 fee for this breakfast event, which may be paid on site, or purchased in advance on the website. This event will honor four legends of the voting rights and civil rights movement who transitioned in 2020: Rev. Joseph Lowery, Congressman John Lewis, Dr. C.T. Vivian and Attorney Bruce Boynton. The Unity Breakfast will conclude with a Slow Ride across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to lay wreaths in honor of them on the Bridge.
The Unity Breakfast will feature a powerful lineup of speakers including U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn; Georgia U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock; Latosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of Black Voters Matter; Dr. Bernard Lafayette,; Martin Luther King, III and more.