Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama 50 Years Ago

Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama, March 10, 1964 (Caption and Photo: AP)

Edmund Winston Pettus Bridge

The Edmund Pettus bridge became a symbol of the momentous changes taking place in Alabama, America, and the world. It was here that voting rights marchers were violently confronted by law enforcement personnel on March 7, 1965. The day became known as Bloody Sunday.

The march resumed on Sunday March 21, with court protection through Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., who 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."

This time, 3,200, versus the initial 600, marchers headed east out of Selma, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and on to Montgomery. Marchers walked 12 miles a day and slept in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- the best possible redress of grievances. (Source: National Park Service)

For more about the remembrance of the Civil Rights March on the Pettus Bridge see The New York Times here, here, and here.

Watch this documentary, "A Call from Selma."

Strange, but true. The bridge was named for Edmund Pettus, "a decorated Confederate general and a leader in the Alabama Ku Klux Klan," reports Smithsonian. Read the story here.

This March 21, 1965, file photo shows Martin Luther King, Jr. and his civil-rights marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., heading for the capitol in Montgomery. The 50th anniversary of the historic civil-rights marches in Selma and the hit movie that tells the story are expected to bring thousands of visitors to this Alabama city. Tourists can retrace history by walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to a park and the National Voting Rights Museum on the opposite side. (Caption and Photo: AP)