56 years later, activists and leaders remember Selma's Bloody Sunday

"As we reflect on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we must stay focused on the work ahead."
"As we reflect on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we must stay focused on the work ahead."
Image: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By Alison Foreman

On March 7, 1965 — 56 years ago — the late John Lewis led one of the most pivotal demonstrations in American Civil Rights history. Now, in 2021, political leaders and social justice advocates are remembering that day as they continue the fight against racial inequality and work to end voter suppression.

"Fifty-six years after Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet over," tweeted former President Barack Obama Sunday morning. "There are more steps to be taken, more bridges to be crossed."

On that March day in 1965, Lewis and more than 600 marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge along Route 80 in Selma, Alabama. The group, which included activists Amelia Boynton Robinson and Hosea Williams, was subsequently attacked by state troopers in an act of violence that would come to be known as "Bloody Sunday." 

News coverage of the attack, which showed the severity of injuries incurred by Lewis, whose skull was fractured; Robinson, who was beaten unconscious; and others, outraged the nation and propelled the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"The legacy of Selma is that while nothing can stop free people from exercising their most sacred power as citizens, there are those who will do anything they can to take that power away," President Joe Biden tweeted on Sunday, along with a pre-taped address announcing an executive order designed to promote voter access.

"As we reflect on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, we must stay focused on the work ahead."

Tweets about that "work ahead" dominated conversation Sunday, as activists and public figures voiced their support for continued progress and protections for Black Americans.