Selma Alabama, Edmund Pettus Bridge site of three historic 1965 marches to Montgomery in the Civil Rights Movement
The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma Alabama, seen from the town side. It is a steep bridge: from here it's still impossible to see what's waiting on the other side. The Bridge carries Route 80 or Jefferson Davis Highway across Alabama River to State Capital Montgomery 50 miles from here. Built in 1940, it is named for Edmund Winston Pettus, Confederate brigadier general in the Civil War, Senator from Alabama and Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. The bridge was the scene of three marches that changed history: on March 7th a first march led by Freedom Rider John Lewis and Baptist Minister Hosea Williams to Montgomery was stopped with so much violence, it became known as Bloody Sunday. The second march on March 9th led by Rev. Martin Luther King confronted the police force at the other side of the bridge, but sat down in prayer and returned peacefully to the church in Selma. One of the white ministers was killed later that day by the KKK. On March 15 President Johnson presented the Voting Rights Act to Congress. The third march, protected by federal troops and police, on March 21 to 25th led by King and many others reached the State Capitol in Montgomery. The march was peaceful, but the KKK killed one of the volunteers on her way back. The bridge is a National Historic Landmark and the commemorative Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, a National Historic Trail runs over it.
Size: 6144px × 4096px
Location: Edmund Pettus Bridge, Route 80, Selma, Alabama, United States of America USA
Photo credit: © Wiskerke / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: &, -, .., 80, al, alabama, bridge, broad, civil, davis, edmund, freedom, highway, historic, historical, horizontal, image, jefferson, landmark, location, locations, march, montgomery, national, pettus, photo, rights, route, selma, site, sites, st, stock, street, today, trail, view, voting, wim, wiskerke
