MONTGOMERY – President Barack Obama is coming to Selma, Ala., on March 7, 2015, the 50th Anniversary of the Voter Rights March, known as Bloody Sunday. This was the first in a series of marches from Selma to Montgomery, which lead to the passage of the 1965 Voter Rights Act. However, this year the actual anniversary date falls on a Saturday.
“The President is coming to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic event and we are excited that he is coming to this area,” said Senate Minority Leader Quinton T. Ross Jr. (D-Montgomery).
Ross recalls walking with the President across the Edmund Pettus Bridge when President Obama was running for office and Ross served as the co-chair of his Alabama campaign.
“I worked on his election campaign in 2007 before he was elected to his first term in office, and I’m excited that he has decided to return to Selma this year to commemorate the event for a second time, but this time as the sitting President of the United States,” Ross said. “I was there when the President pushed the late Johnnie Carr in her wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2007.”
Carr succeeded the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, and held that office until she died in 2008.
Ross said the 50th anniversary of this monumental occasion is a special time for all Americans, and he is overjoyed that President Obama has decided to share in the festivities.
“We are all the benefactors of the blood, sweat and tears shed during this turning point in our nation’s history,” Ross said. “The fact that President Obama has decided to include Selma on his schedule during the celebration shows that he, too, understands the significance of this period of change to America history.”
The Senate Minority Leader is not alone in his feelings about Obama’s arrival.
Alabama State Sen. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro) shares in Ross’ excitement about the visit from the President.
“The Civil Rights Movement and Bloody Sunday were bigger than just one day,” Singleton said. “It’s all about the events that evolved leading up to that day and the legislation which followed. We feel good about the President coming to any event in our area for the 50th anniversary of the Voter Rights Act.”
Singleton said that President Obama’s Saturday visit does not take away from the organizers or any of the great work that has been done to plan this historic celebration.
“A sitting president is coming to the Black Belt of Alabama, and we need to open our hearts and our minds to welcome him,” Singleton said. “We need President Barack Obama to come and see our area while he has the power that comes with the office of the President.”
Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr.’s (D-Marion) late father was one of the leaders of the Bloody Sunday March, which ended in violence and bloodshed.
Turner knows the importance of the occasion and what the commemoration meant to his father, Albert Turner Sr.
“I would hate for the everyday person to be inconvenienced by the heavy security that will be present during the Presidents visit,” Turner said. “The Presidents arrival will be welcomed by 99 percent of those in attendance. Perry County, where Blood Sunday was conceived and the only county in the nation to hold an official holiday in his honor will eagerly await his arrival.”
