Bloody Sunday commemoration March 1 on downtown bridge

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

In commemoration of “Bloody Sunday” 50 years ago in Selma, Ala., there will be a program at 3 p.m. March 1 at the Tyler Historical Center, 325 W. Federal St., on the history of Selma and the grass-roots effort of local people to secure the right to vote.

Participants will then walk silently, two by two over the Frank Sinkwich Bridge, across the Mahoning River, ending at the B&O Station.

Fifty years ago, 600 marchers from Selma walked from Brown’s Chapel across the Edmond Pettus Bridge on their way to Montgomery, Ala., the capital of the state. They were walking for freedom and the right to register to vote but were ordered by police to turn around and go back.

Before they could turn around or kneel to pray, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies advanced on the marchers, beating them with clubs, running over them with their horses and shooting tear gas into the crowd.

Read more about the event in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.