The city is best known for the Battle of Selma and for the Selma to Montgomery Marches. Selma is home to the largest contiguous historic district in the State of Alabama.
But in March that year, it became known around the world as a place of protest, marches and savage police beatings on what is now called Bloody Sunday. There are plenty of things to do in Selma. Every tour must include a walk across the bridge, which I once called the most beautiful place in America.
It still is an active roadway bridge with cars yet has a safe pedestrian walkway on both sides of the lanes. Give 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to visit and learn at the U.S. National Park Interpretive Center located in the building right on the corner closest to the bridge. over a year ago.
SelmaEdmund Pettus Bridge / LocationThe Edmund Pettus Bridge spans over the Alabama River at downtown Selma, AL. It is a steel through-arch bridge that was designed by Henson K. Stephenson and erected in 1939. The bridge was named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate Brigadier General and U. S. Senator from Alabama.
54-mile-The 54-mile-long national historic trail begins at the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Selma and then follows the 1965 historic routes of the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches through the city and eastward along US Highway 80 through Dallas County and Lowndes County.
It is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Selma to Montgomery.
He did so as a symbolic gesture. LeRoy Collins, the governor of Florida, suggested he should first pray as he arrives on the bridge, and then turn around and lead all of the protesters back to Selma in an attempt to get a symbolic accomplishment of crossing the bridge while keeping everyone safe.
Edmund Pettus BridgeThe Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business (US 80 Bus.) across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-level leader ("Grand Dragon") of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
the Edmund Pettus BridgeWhile King was in Atlanta, his SCLC colleague Hosea Williams and SNCC leader John Lewis led the march. The marchers made their way through Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they faced a blockade of state troopers and local lawmen commanded by Clark and Major John Cloud, who ordered the marchers to disperse.
The Edmund Pettus BridgeThe Edmund Pettus Bridge, spanning the Alabama River in Selma, has become one of the most iconic symbols of the modern struggle for civil and voting rights in America. It is also a focal point for the 54-mile route now memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.
On March 7, 1965, state and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery.
John LewisJohn Lewis Crosses Selma Bridge One Last Time : NPR. John Lewis Crosses Selma Bridge One Last Time In 1965, John Lewis was nearly killed as he led a group of protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to protest racial discrimination in voting.
the Edmund Pettus BridgeWhile King was in Atlanta, his SCLC colleague Hosea Williams and SNCC leader John Lewis led the march. The marchers made their way through Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they faced a blockade of state troopers and local lawmen commanded by Clark and Major John Cloud, who ordered the marchers to disperse.
Edmund Pettus BridgeThe Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business (US 80 Bus.) across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-level leader ("Grand Dragon") of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
the Edmund Pettus BridgeOn March 9, King led more than 2,000 marchers, Black and white, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge but found Highway 80 blocked again by state troopers. King paused the marchers and led them in prayer, whereupon the troopers stepped aside.
He did so as a symbolic gesture. LeRoy Collins, the governor of Florida, suggested he should first pray as he arrives on the bridge, and then turn around and lead all of the protesters back to Selma in an attempt to get a symbolic accomplishment of crossing the bridge while keeping everyone safe.