Marching to Selma’s 50th: 50 Cities/50 Cars/ 50 Voters Campaign to Register
One Million Voters Nationwide
The Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, commemorating the 49th anniversary
of Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965, kicks off a yearlong voter
education and registration campaign in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision that
dismantled a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Saving Our Selves (S.O.S.) Movement for Justice and Democracy, a regional association of 40
organizations and activists, organized the Marching to Selma’s 50th: 50 Cities/ 50 Cars/ 50
Voters At A Time campaign that began on Monday, March 10 with “The Caravan for
Democracy: From the State Capitols to the Nation’s Capitol ” following culminating activities
on Sunday, March 9, after the annual pilgrimage across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
S.O.S. organizers and activists say there is nothing to celebrate if the unequivocal right to vote,
without voter suppression tactics, is not fully restored, in honor of those who were jailed,
beaten, tear-gassed and killed to win voting rights for all citizens. The Marching to the 50th’s
two-fold campaign includes: 1.) bringing attention to increased voter suppression that resulted
from the Supreme Court’s 2013 dismantling of the Voting Rights Act; and 2.) organizing
participation in a massive voter registration effort that will result in at least one million new
voters nationwide by March 2015, the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches.
The Caravan for Democracy will stop for rallies at state capitols in Montgomery Ala., Atlanta
Ga., Columbia S.C., Raleigh N.C. and Richmond Va. Participants can join the caravan from these
cities along the way, as well as those who travel from other cities and states, to converge in
Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 12, at the U.S. Supreme Court and then march to the
U.S. Capitol. The march will culminate in a rally that protests the Supreme Court’s adverse
decision on voting rights and urges Congress to fully restore the Voting Rights Act.
The D.C. rally marks the beginning of Marching to the 50th’s yearlong voter registration drives
around the country. Organizations and individuals committed to social justice in every city and
state are asked to participate by registering at least 50 voters each in order to reach the one million-
new-voters goal by March 2015.
For more details about the campaign, visit www.sosmovement.net/marching-to-the-50th/ or
text “selmajubilee” to 72727.
