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Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, Selma, Alabama–600 Black men and women were beaten bloody by police officers intent on stopping them from attaining justice and equal rights as American citizens, specifically, the right to vote.
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Following the police shooting death of church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in coordination with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC, and the Dallas Voters League, organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to confront Governor George Wallace about accountability for the police officer who killed Jackson. They also planned to voice their frustration with the purposely inconvenient and hostile means by which Black folks were given to register as voters. Despite the community’s righteous indignation, the march was peaceful demonstration, no one was armed and non-violence were literally the marching orders.
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However, that didn’t stop a gang of Alabama State Troopers from assembling on the far side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they would tear-gas and violently attack the marchers with the batons. Iconic, beloved, and revered congressman John Lewis was the chairman of SNCC at the time, he was part of the march and suffered a fractured skull when he struck by an officer’s club.
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This day was not the only day that a march, a protest, or an act of civil disobedience took place but it does serve as a reminder that this country was willing to commit heinous acts of violence to oppress Black bodies. They were scared our collective strength then, and they should still fear our ability to effectively organize, communicate, and apply pressure until our demands are met right now in 2025. To this day, Black folks like Rep. Al Green are still getting into what Congressman Lewis famously called “good trouble” to fight to save programs and initiatives that aid our communities.
We have the right to vote because the 600 who walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and thousands if not millions of others put it all on the line in hopes for a better future for people like us at this moment.
What are you willing to do?
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