Thousands of people have gathered in Alabama to mark the 50th anniversary of the Selma march.President Obama Delivers Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Selma Marches.
“Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer,” said President Barack Obama.
Why did they march?
Fifty years ago, on March 7, 1965, hundreds of people gathered in Selma, Alabama to march to the capital city of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote — even in the face of a segregationist system that wanted to make it impossible.
On the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, state troopers and county members violently attacked the marchers, leaving many of them injured and bloodied — and some of them unconscious.
