Images: 50th annniversay of Selma's Bloody Sunday
Saturday, March 7, marks the 50th anniversary of what's become know as Bloody Sunday. The march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, ended that day when 600 marchers were attacked by Alabama state troopers and others with tear gas and billy clubs. The march was part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. Another march that started on March 21, 1965, ended peacefully when 25,000 people arrived at the state capitol to support voting rights.
Civil rights demonstrators struggle on the ground as state troopers use violence to break up a march in Selma, Ala., on what is known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. The supporters of black voting rights organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the killing of a demonstrator by a state trooper and to improve voter registration for blacks, who are discouraged to register.
Associated Press
In this March 7, 1965 file photo, S.W. Boynton is carried and another injured man tended to after they were injured when state police broke up a demonstration march in Selma, Ala. Boynton, wife of a real estate and insurance man, has been a leader in civil rights efforts. The day, which became known as "Bloody Sunday," is widely credited for galvanizing the nation's leaders and ultimately yielded passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Associated Press
Tear gas fumes fill the air as state troopers, ordered by Gov. George Wallace, break up a demonstration march in Selma, Ala., on what is known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. As several hundred marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin their protest march to Montgomery, state troopers violently assaulted the crowd with clubs and whips. A shocked nation watched the police brutality on television and demanded that Washington intervene and protect voter registration rights for blacks.
Associated Press
In this March 5, 1965 file photo, the mayor and his auxiliary police, armed with shotguns, rifles, pistols and tear gas, form a roadblock at city limits to stop 150 African Americans from marching into town to the courthouse in a demonstration for voting rights in Camden, Ala. The protesters knelt down and prayed and returned to a church about three miles away. (AP Photo/File)
Associated Press
Hosea Williams, left, who led a march in Selma, Ala., leaves the scene as state troopers break up the demonstration on what is known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. Behind him, at right, John Lewis of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee is put on the ground by a trooper. Lewis suffered a possible skull fracture. Supporters of black voting rights organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the killing of a demonstrator by a state trooper and to improve voter registration for blacks, who are discouraged to register. (AP Photo)
Associated Press
Alabama police troopers on horseback watch as troopers on the ground swing their clubs at demonstrators in Selma, Ala., on what is known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965. Supporters of black voting rights organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the killing of a demonstrator by a state trooper and to improve voter registration for blacks, who are discouraged to register.
Associated Press
In this March 5, 1965 file photo, about 150 African Americans pray along a roadside near Camden, Ala. after they were stopped by the mayor and deputies from marching into the city to demonstrate against voting laws.
Associated Press
In this Feb. 17, 1965 file photo, African Americans stand in line in the rain to try to register for a voter registration test in Selma, Ala.
Associated Press
In this March 11, 1965 file photo, voters rights demonstrators sleep on the street in Selma, Ala. after several attempted marches were halted by police.
Associated Press
In this March 10, 1965 file photo, a long line of demonstrators approaches a contingent of state troopers who turned them back during a voters rights march at Selma, Ala. The group returned to a church with no incident.
Associated Press
In this March 13, 1965 file photo, three unidentified nuns from the Queen of the World Hospital in Kansas City join hands with other demonstrators under a tarp to sing freedom songs in Selma, Ala. This group stood for two days, mostly in the rain, in a voter registration protest.
Associated Press
In this March 13, 1965 file photo, a line of police officers hold back demonstrators who attempted to march to the courthouse in Selma, Ala. Police kept the demonstrators hemmed up in a square block area where they attempted several times to break through.
Associated Press
In this March 17, 1965 file photo, thousands of demonstrators march to the Montgomery, Ala. courthouse behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to protest treatment of demonstrators by police during an attempted march. At foreground center in white shirt is Andrew Young.
Associated Press
In this March 16, 1965 file photo, mounted state and county police officers ride their horses into a group of demonstrators after they refused to disperse in Montgomery, Ala.
Associated Press
In this March 18, 1965 file photo, police carry a demonstrator into a police vehicle after a group picketed in Montgomery, Ala. and refused to disperse after an hour and a half. About 80 were arrested in front of the Alabama state capitol building.
Associated Press
In this March 21, 1965 file photo, Dr. Martin Luther King, foreground row, fifth from right, waves as marchers stream across the Alabama River on the first of a five day, 50-mile march to the state capitol at Montgomery, Ala.
Associated Press
Civil rights marchers cross the Alabama river on the Edmund Pettus Bridge at Selma March 21, 1965, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the lead at the start of a five day, 50-mile march to the State Capitol of Montgomery for voter registration rights for blacks. The two leading Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., are scheduled to give nearly simultaneous speeches behind church pulpits just half a block apart from each other in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, March 4, 2007, to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the bloody civil rights march there that helped rollback segregation in the South.
Associated Press
In this March 25, 1965 file photo, state troopers block the steps of the Alabama state capitol at Montgomery, Ala. from civil rights marchers at the end of their five-day march from Selma, Ala.
Associated Press
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