On Sunday, March 7, 1965, over 300 gathered in Selma, Alabama, to march to the capital city of Montgomery. The purpose of the 54-mile journey was to ensure that Black Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote despite an era of Jim Crow segregation that aimed to deny them this right.
That day became known as “Bloody Sunday” because people across America and the world reacted with horror when local police and Alabama state troopers violently attacked the nonviolent marchers as they made their way down the Edmund Pettus Bridge — named after a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan — shortly after starting their journey to Selma.
Many individuals, including the late Rep. John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were beaten and sustained life-threatening injuries.
Two days later, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march of 2,500 at the Pettus Bridge but turned around to obey a court order prohibiting the protest.
The third march commenced on March 21. They arrived in Montgomery on March 24 and on March 25, as more than 25,000 civil rights supporters gathered at the capitol building in Alabama’s capital city.
Sixty years later, the resilience and determination of the marchers serve as motivation and offer hope for activists today.
In the wake of federal amendments that reverse anti-segregation mandates, executive orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and threats to revoke funding for teaching Black history, activists must take action.
One of the many “sheroes” of March 25, 1965, was Viola Liuzzo, 39, a white wife and mother of five from Detroit. She left her family and drove to Alabama to march with King. A few hours after King spoke, she was shot dead by the Ku Klux Klan while transporting protesters in her car with a Black man.
Christina Prado was born on March 25, 1989, 24 years to the day that her grandmother, Liuzzo, was killed.
Considering the march’s 60th anniversary, Prado, who will soon turn 36, reflected on her grandmother’s memory and legacy.
“The message and virtue of what my grandmother stood for is every bit relevant now as it was 60 years ago. With the current political climate, I think it’s important to take the same type of stance as those who marched for equality for all,” she told The Informer.
In today’s political climate, we must remember the work of Liuzzo, King, Lewis and others, and continue the struggle for racial equality and justice for all.
“We need to do peaceful protests with love messages to make sure that history does not repeat itself,” Prado continued. “What she stood for is still relevant today.”