“We have received a number of calls from around the country with people saying they are being told the Bloody Sunday March is going to be on Saturday. We want to assure those tens of thousands of people who come to Selma because of Bloody Sunday that the Bloody Sunday March will be on Sunday, March 5th.
“We have been told that certain people are trying to move it to Saturday, but we strongly oppose that. We must do whatever is necessary to protect, maintain and lift the sacredness of Selma’s Bloody Sunday,” said Hank Sanders, former Alabama State Senator, and co-founder, with his wife, Faya Rose Toure (Sanders) of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.
“Bloody Sunday is sacred now. Bloody Sunday has been sacred for 58 years. We must keep Selma’s Bloody Sunday sacred now and into the future. We cannot allow anybody or anything to reduce or limit or change the sacredness of Bloody Sunday,” said SCLC National President and CEO Dr. Charles Steele Jr.
“The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized the 1965 Bloody Sunday March in Selma as well as the Selma to Montgomery March, and we know firsthand the sacredness of Bloody Sunday. That is why every year SCLC is in Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery March. SCLC is also a key sponsor of the Bloody Sunday March and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.” Dr. Steele has been the National President and CEO of SCLC for nearly 20 years, before that he operated a funeral home business in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was a member of the Alabama Legislature.
Bridge Crossing Jubilee Co-Founder and former 35-year Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders said: “Bloody Sunday is sacred. We have commemorated the Bloody Sunday March on the first Sunday in March for 50 consecutive years. It has been the heart of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee for 30 years. People all over the world recognize Selma’s Bloody Sunday and the Bloody Sunday March as sacred even though there were many places of struggle in the Voting Rights Movement and a number of lives lost. Selma’s Bloody Sunday March is sacred to millions of people across the country and beyond.”
Dr. Joe Reed, Chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference, said: “We cannot compromise that which is sacred, and Selma’s Bloody Sunday is sacred. I was at the organizing of SNCC on the campus of North Carolina’s Shaw University in 1960, and I have seen firsthand the power of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I know the sacrifices that were made, the blood that was shed and the lives that were lost to get the Voting Rights Act. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure Selma’s Bloody Sunday March remains sacred and on Sunday.”
The Bloody Sunday March occurs because of the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was murdered by an Alabama State Trooper in Marion, Alabama, and people decided to march from Selma to Montgomery as a result and were beaten bloody on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma by law enforcement. A number of national Civil Rights Leaders and Voting Rights Leaders insist that Selma’s Bloody Sunday March is sacred and cannot be compromised. The leaders spoke at a 10:00 am. press conference in the Auditorium at 424 South Decatur Street in Montgomery last week.
The Bridge Crossing Jubilee including workshops, a parade, Freedom Flame Dinner, Foot soldiers Breakfast, golf tournament. mock trial, Martin and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast, music festival on Water Street, church services and the commemorative march for ‘Bloody Sunday’ on Sunday, will be held from March 2 to 5, 2023, in Selma, Alabama.