Chapter Sclc Roanoke to honor Marchers 60 years after anniversary

Roanoke, va. (WDBJ) – Friday will mark 60 years from a historic march in Selma, Alabama, where peaceful protesters who advocate for Afro -American voting rights were violently attacked on the Edmund Pettus bridge in 1965.

March 7, 1965, civil rights activist John Lewis, along with over 600 people, proposed to go to the Edmund Pettus bridge from Selma to Montgomery, peacefully protesting the right to vote. But before they could cross the bridge, they were brutally attacked by law offices.

“They were greeted with dogs and all kinds of beatings just to cause us to vote. All we wanted to do was to have a say, ”said the president of the Roanoke chapter in Southern Christian Management ConferenceBishop Edward Mitchell.

The national indignation towards the attack, also known as Bloody Sunday, stimulated a second March, on March 21, 1965, led by the leader of civil rights Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from Selma to the Montgomery state capital.

“To announce the nation and the world to know that we are tired now. I lived with slavery and segregation for 345 years; I waited a lot of time for freedom, “said Martin Luther King, Jr. during a speech to the 1965 marches.

This moment was a turning point in history, which led to the adoption of the law on voting rights of 1965.

“This was rights to us that it pushed so hard to obtain. It seemed that at some point I couldn’t get there. But he got there and now we have to continue to fight so as not to lose it, ”said Bishop Mitchell.

Every year, the Roanoke chapter of the Leadership Conference Christian Southern (SCLC) hosts a memory event at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge and statue to remember the intention of the Selma March to pay tribute to those who have been attacked.

“It was tough for them, so we celebrate that every March 7, because the bloody Sunday was a truly bloody day, but that didn’t stop Dr. King. About 2-3 weeks later, their march returned again. Over 25,000 people met that bridge that day and that opened the door, ”said Bishop Mitchell.

The event will take place at a historical bridge that is significant for the Afro -Americans in Roanoke, because the Edmund Pettus bridge was for those who marched in 1965.

“He separated from the center of the city of Gainsboro above the bridge, called Henry Street at the time, and a lot of black companies were there, so it was like a safe refuge. If you were in the center of the city in the 1960s and you would do something in the city center and you were black, if you could go over that bridge and get to its top, no one would come after you, “said Bishop Mitchell.

The sclc event will take place on Friday at 4:00 pm.