Close Menu
WTX News
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London
    • Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI
    • Sure! Here’s the text without the site name, category, date, and full stops: “It blew my mind as a kid” TV fans reveal best sci-fi series ever
    • Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area
    • Mauricio Pochettino ‘shocked’ by Daniel Levy’s Tottenham exit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    WTX News
    • Live News
      • US News
      • EU News
      • UK News
      • Politics
      • COVID-19
      • Business
      • Tech zone
    • World news
      • Middle East News
        • UAE News
        • Palestine News
      • Europe
        • Italian News
        • Spanish News
      • Africa news
      • South America
      • North America
      • Asia
    • News Briefings
      • UK News Briefing
      • World News Briefing
      • Live Business News
    • Sports
      • Football News
      • Tennis
      • Women’s Football
    • MY World
      • Climate Change
      • In Review
      • Expose
      • Special Reports
        • Conscience Convoy
        • Rohingya Report
    • Entertainment
      • Insta Talk
      • Royal Family
      • Gaming News
      • TV Shows
      • Streaming
    • Lifestyle
      • Fitness
      • Fashion
      • Cooking recipes
      • Luxury
      • Money Saving Expert
    • Travel
      • Culture
      • Holidays
    • Sign Up
      • Log In
    WTX News
    • Live News
    • World news
    • News Briefings
    • Sports
    • MY World
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Sign Up
    Home - World News - ‘Bloody Sunday’ 60th anniversary marked in Selma with remembrances and concerns about the future
    World News

    ‘Bloody Sunday’ 60th anniversary marked in Selma with remembrances and concerns about the future

    By Jeff Jones Jr7 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Telegram WhatsApp
    ‘Bloody Sunday’ 60th anniversary marked in Selma with remembrances and concerns about the future

    Cliff Notes – Bloody Sunday

    • On March 9, 2025, Selma, Alabama, commemorated the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” where marchers protest for voting rights in 1965 and faced brutal violence from law enforcement.
    • The event highlighted the ongoing struggle for voting rights, with contemporary concerns about new voting restrictions and political shifts that could undermine historical protections for Black Americans.
    • Notable figures, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, emphasized the importance of continuing the fight for equality amidst current societal challenges and pushed back against attempts to “whitewash” history.
    • The annual event, also known as “The Annual Pilgrimage to Selma,” integrates music, art, and historical remembrance, culminating in a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a significant symbol of the civil rights movement.
    • Participants voiced concern over potential backslides in civil rights, with reflections from those who lived through the original events and emphasized the ongoing struggle for true democracy.

    ‘Bloody Sunday’ 60th anniversary marked in Selma with remembrances and concerns about the future

    People walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" on March 09, 2025 in Selma, Alabama
    Americans remember Edmund Pettus Bridge as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” on March 09, 2025 in Selma, Alabama

    SELMA, ALABAMA – MARCH 09: on the 60th anniversary marked in Selma, People walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”.

    Community members and Democratic Congressional leadership mark the day on March 7, 1965 to demand voting rights for black Americans. Standing up to the tyranny and hate that defined the Midwest; they stood together, defiant and said No more! 

    What is Bloody Sunday?

    The backstory of the 60th anniversary marked in Selma

    Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965.

    The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote, as well as the killing days earlier of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a minister and voting rights organizer who was shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion.

    At the apex of the span over the Alabama River, they saw what awaited them: a line of state troopers, deputies and men on horseback. They kept going. After they approached, law enforcement gave a two-minute warning to disperse and then unleashed violence.

    “Within about a minute or a half, they took their billy clubs, holding it on both ends, began to push us back to back us in, and then they began to beat men, women and children, and tear gas men, women and children, and cattle prod men, women and children viciously,” said Mauldin, who was 17 at the time.

    Bloody Sunday The backstory of the 60th anniversary marked in Selma
    The backstory of the 60th anniversary marked in Selma

    The picture from 3/7/1965-Selma, Alabama- Wearing helmets and gas masks, charging Alabama state troopers pass up fallen ‘Negro demonstrators’ on the median strip of U.S. Highway 80. Troopers, acting on orders of Alabama governor George Wallace, broke the protest.

    Kirk Carrington was just 13 on Bloody Sunday and was chased through the city by a man on a horse wielding a stick. “When we started marching, we did not know the impact we would have in America,” he said.

    The attack shocked the nation and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965.

    Today, the annual commemoration pays homage to those who fought to secure voting rights for Black Americans and brought calls to recommit to the fight for equality.

    Bloody Sunday: 60th anniversary

    What we know:

    For those gathered in Selma this weekend, the celebration comes amid concerns about new voting restrictions and the Trump administration’s effort to remake federal agencies, which they said helped make America a democracy for all.

    Every year Americans remember and walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” on March 09, 2025 in Selma, Alabama. Community members and Democratic Congressional leadership mark the day on March 7, 1965 when a group of about 525 mostly African-American demonstrators gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church and attempted to march to Montgomery to demand the right to vote.

    The group was met by state troopers and were brutally beaten when they refused to turn back leaving at least 17 hospitalized and 40 others who received treatment for injuries and the effects of tear gas. The annual event which has been dubbed “The Annual Pilgrimage to Selma,” is held the second weekend of every March, consisting of a festival of music, art and historical remembrance leading up to the “March to Restore Voting Rights” across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

    Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, who grew up in Selma, remembers a time when she was expected to lower her gaze if she passed a white person on the street to avoid making eye contact.

    Dawson and Mauldin said they are concerned about the potential dismantling of the Department of Education and other changes to federal agencies.

    Support from the federal government “is how Black Americans have been able to get justice, to get some semblance of equality, because left to states’ rights, it is going to be the white majority that’s going to rule,” Dawson said.

    Speaking at the pulpit of the city’s historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said what happened in Selma changed the nation. He said the 60th anniversary comes at a time when there is “trouble all around” and some “want to whitewash our history.” But he said, like the marchers of Bloody Sunday, they must keep going.

    What they’re saying:

    “At this moment, faced with trouble on every side, we’ve got to press on,” Jeffries said to the crowd that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, multiple members of Congress and others gathered for the commemoration.

    Congress joined with Bloody Sunday marchers

    Members of Congress joined with Bloody Sunday marchers to lead a march of several thousand people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They stopped to pray at the site where marchers were beaten in 1965.

    “We gather here on the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when our country is in chaos,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama.

    Sewell, a Selma native, noted the number of voting restrictions introduced since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively abolished a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to clear new voting laws with the Justice Department. Other speakers noted the Trump administration’s push to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and a rollback of equal opportunity executive orders that have been on the books since the 1960s.

    “We had steeled our nerves to a point where we were so determined that we were willing to confront. It was past being courageous. We were determined, and we were indignant,” Mauldin recalled.

    He said the “country was not a democracy for Black folks” until voting rights. “And we’re still constantly fighting to make that a more concrete reality for ourselves.”

    “That’s a tragedy of 60 years later: what we are looking at now is a return to the 1950s,” Dawson said.

    Atlanta’s Rep. John Lewis, Hosea Williams led Blood Sunday

    Local perspective:

    In 1965, the Bloody Sunday marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams walked in pairs across the Selma Bridge headed toward Montgomery.

    You can picture this vividly But this defined American society – Long line of Negro marchers, heading towards a bridge across Alabama River passing signs “welcoming visitors”, met within Fifty-yards by hate-fuelled state troopers who used guns, clubs and tear gas  and violence to break up their protest. How many American cities does that describe in 60s!

    Alabama featured Latest News US Expose US featured
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email Telegram WhatsApp
    Previous ArticleHer father took her on a trip to Pakistan – it was a trap
    Next Article UK government vows to clean up Windermere after sewage criticism
    Jeff Jones Jr

    Related Posts

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area
    UK News

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area

    President Trump signs order rebranding Pentagon as the Department of War
    UK News

    President Trump signs order rebranding Pentagon as the Department of War

    Joe Biden has skin cancer surgery – months after ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer diagnosis
    UK News

    Joe Biden has skin cancer surgery – months after ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer diagnosis

    Reform conference gets under way as Farage returns from Trump meeting
    UK News

    Reform conference gets under way as Farage returns from Trump meeting

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

    Advertisment
    News Headlines
    Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London

    Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area

    Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area

    Save 70% on VIP subscription
    News Briefings - the way to a better life
    News Briefings - the way to a better life
    Advert by Sponsors
    More from WTX News
    The latest gaming news - with game reviews and tips and tricks. updated 24 hours a day.
    The latest gaming news
    Hot off the press!
    • Arrests made at protest for Palestine Action in London September 6, 2025
    • Jamie Overton replaces Saqib Mahmood in England XI for third ODI September 6, 2025
    • Sure! Here’s the text without the site name, category, date, and full stops: “It blew my mind as a kid” TV fans reveal best sci-fi series ever September 6, 2025
    • Israel warns Gaza City residents to flee south to humanitarian area September 6, 2025
    • Mauricio Pochettino ‘shocked’ by Daniel Levy’s Tottenham exit September 6, 2025
    wtx news brings you the latest news, a UK news briefing, Sports analysis, and premier league news with a special round-up of Business and crypto updates
    Facebook X (Twitter) TikTok Instagram

    News

    • World News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • EU News
    • Business
    • Opinions
    • News Briefing
    • Live News

    Company

    • About WTX News
    • Register
    • Advertising
    • Work with us
    • Contact
    • Community
    • GDPR Policy
    • Privacy

    Services

    • Fitness for free
    • Insta Talk
    • How to guides
    • Climate Change
    • In Review
    • Expose
    • NEWS SUMMARY
    • Money Saving Expert

    News delivered to your inbox

    Copyright WTX News 2025

    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.