Thousands attend ceremony at Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday

SELMA, Ala. — People from across the country joined on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Saturday to remember the 50^th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
 
Channel 2's Dave Huddleston said there was a celebratory feeling in Selma as President Barack Obama and Atlanta's own Rep. John Lewis were center stage and thousands came to honor those activists who helped push forward the country's Voting Rights Act.
 
People from all walks of life flocked to Selma to honor those who pushed for the right to vote. The National Park Service estimates 27,000 people filled the streets at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the ceremony.

Before the ceremony, Huddleston spoke with Lewis to ask him what the day meant to him.
 
It was 50 years ago Saturday that Lewis helped lead a group of voting advocates across this bridge and into a bloody battle with law enforcement.
 
That battle would change American history. Lewis remarked on how times have changed.
 
"Selma city police, the sheriff of Dallas County, Secret Service are here (today). It's a world of difference," Lewis said.
 
Lewis introduced Obama and told the crowd, "If you would've told me 50 years ago I would be introducing this country's first black president at the foot of this bridge, I would've called you crazy." 
 
Obama spoke to the gathered crowd about the greatness and historical significance of the day, admonishing them not to give away their power and remember those who fought for it.
 
"It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes your life.  What is our excuse today for not voting?  How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought?" Obama said.
 
During the speech a group of protestors could be heard chanting, "We want change."

There was a group from Ferguson, Missouri who were there, upset about the shooting of an unarmed man.

The president and Lewis addressed Ferguson, what they had to say about it and more reaction from today's events on The Channel 2 Action News Nightbeat at 11 p.m.

Original Marchers Remember Violent Beatings

50 years ago, many African-Americans including a young John Lewis crossed the bridge. The group was beaten for trying to vote.

Jim Benston tells Channel 2's Dave Huddleston he was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge 50 years ago.

"We knew we were going to be beaten, we didn't know it was going to be that bad," said Benston. "When they said 'trooper advance,' they came at us with the clubs."

Benston says he knew what happened to him and others like Congressman John Lewis would change the country.

"There are times in history when there's a turning point, and you create a new world," said Benston. "That's what we did right here on the bridge."

Vickye Armstrong of LaGrange traveled to Selma, and crossed the bridge. She says she did it to answer one question.

"If I was in the 1960s, would I have the courage to take those steps or would I turn around," Armstrong said. She didn't have an answer.

For some students, the ghosts of Bloody Sunday linger on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Xavier Prince said, "You can feel it, the sadness on it."

Activists: Fight For Voting Rights Isn’t Over

Only Channel 2 Action News talked with Martin Luther King the Third about why he says the fight for voting rights is more important now, than ever.

At an award banquet honoring civil rights leaders, King told Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston if his father was alive, he would not be pleased with how the U.S. Supreme Court has changed voting laws.

"I know he would be greatly disappointed that the courts chose to decimate the Voting Rights Act, but he would challenge us always in a constructive way,” King said.

Along with the King children, civil rights icons like Jesse Jackson and Pres. Lyndon Johnson's daughters attended the banquet.

"We have so many people of color who are making this a much richer vibrant country,” said Lynda Bird Johnson Robb.

Luci Baines Johnson told Huddleston, she was there when her father signed the 1965 Voting Rights Bill into law.

"As a young woman I knew, I was being an eyewitness to history,” said Luci Baines Johnson.

WSBTV