Seventeen years before "Bloody Sunday" occured in Londonderry Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972, leaving 14 unarmed Catholic protestors dead in a peaceful protest against British rule, another "Bloody Sunday" occured in Selma, Alabama.
Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the most important and famous events of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm
The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators. "The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups...," said Judge Johnson, "and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways." On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965--the best possible redress of grievances.
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Please visit the website given above to see pics from this historic event.
Current U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D - GA) was one of those there that day.
He was recently honored for his heroic efforts as a young student organizer during the Civil Rights Movement. During one of the "Freedom Rides" through the South to desegregate interstate public transportation, John lewis was beaten so severely by police that he almost lost his life.
This past October, Rep. Lewis was honored alongside Bono for his contributions toward making the world a better place by the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Bono has claimed that Lewis is one of his personal heroes.
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/freedom/awardspics2004.asp
Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the most important and famous events of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm
The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators. "The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups...," said Judge Johnson, "and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways." On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965--the best possible redress of grievances.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Please visit the website given above to see pics from this historic event.
Current U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D - GA) was one of those there that day.
He was recently honored for his heroic efforts as a young student organizer during the Civil Rights Movement. During one of the "Freedom Rides" through the South to desegregate interstate public transportation, John lewis was beaten so severely by police that he almost lost his life.
This past October, Rep. Lewis was honored alongside Bono for his contributions toward making the world a better place by the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Bono has claimed that Lewis is one of his personal heroes.
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/freedom/awardspics2004.asp