Tag Archives: Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast

Vice President Kamala Harris & Attorney General Merrick Garland to Attend the 2024 Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma

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Vice President Kamala Harris will return to Selma this Sunday for the 2024 Bridge Crossing Jubilee. The Vice President will be speaking at the Bridge and making the sacred Bloody Sunday March. She will be joining tens of thousands in attending the Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which is the largest annual civil rights gathering in the nation.

Former Senator Hank Sanders said: “Vice President Harris previously attended the Jubilee as Vice President two years ago. She has also attended the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast at the Jubilee as a U.S. Senator before she was elected Vice President. As the first woman vice president and the first African American vice president, Harris stands on the shoulders of those who sacrificed for voting rights in Selma and across the county. Harris stands on the shoulders of other women, and she is opening doors for other women.”

“United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, the highest law enforcement in the country, will be making his first trip to the Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma this year. The Attorney General plays a key role in protecting voting rights throughout the United States,” Sanders said.

Also, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for Civil Rights will be making her second trip to Selma this year for the Jubilee. She is one of the national speakers at the Annual Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast on Sunday at Wallace Community College Selma. The Unity Breakfast is from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and features a strong slate of national and international speakers, including Martin Luther King, III; Congressman Jim Clyburn; U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler, NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Janai S. Nelson; the Rev. Dr. William Barber; Coumba Toure Ba from Senegal, West Africa; Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson; and many others.

The Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee features dozens and dozens of events, which began on Monday, February 26th and run through Sunday, March 3rd. There is something for everyone at this year’s Jubilee, including Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Bridge and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s participation in the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast, Sunday, drive-in event, features President Joe Biden virtually Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee schedules virtual commemoration, March 4-7

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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.