Peter Schorsch
Representative Gwen Graham traveled to Selma, Alabama, this weekend, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday Attack on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Graham attended a service at Brown Chapel AME Church, a wreath-laying ceremony at the Civil Rights Memorial, and she joined Rep. John Lewis in a march across the landmark bridge.
“It was an honor to join Rep. John Lewis and civil rights leaders in a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma,” Graham said in a statement from her office. “We march to honor the hard work and sacrifice of those who crossed before us 50 years ago — and when we honor the past, we also shine a light on the work still to be done to advance full equality and civil rights in our country.”
The Bloody Sunday attack occurred on March 7, 1965, when John Lewis and Hosea Williams led a group of 600 African Americans from Brown Chapel AME Church six blocks and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Alabama’s State Public Safety Director Al Lingo ordered armed troopers to attack the marchers, hospitalizing 50.
