Hundreds march across Brooklyn Bridge for Selma anniversary

Some 500 New Yorkers took to the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, March 7, to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1965 Selma marches.

Together with local elected officials and community leaders, marchers made their way across the bridge to Borough Hall where Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams – the organizer of the event — hosted a screening of President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation from Selma, Alabama.

“We call on all New Yorkers who believe in civil rights and racial equality to join us in support of the Selma marchers of 1965,” said civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, who organized the march with Adams. “In the struggle for racial justice, Selma was a great turning point. Let us remember and let it be our guide in fulfilling the dream of equality for all.”

In 1965, activists set out to march from Selma, Alabama to the state’s capital of Montgomery with the intent of eliminating barriers to voting for Black Americans, marking a turning point in civil rights and bringing about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The march was interrupted violently on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma by law enforcement officials on March 7, 1965, a day that became known as Bloody Sunday.

“We’re fighting now for not just civil rights, but human rights,” said Adams, “the right to housing, the right to employment, the right to health care, the right to not be prosecuted unfairly; all those who feel America has denied them, this is your Selma moment.”

Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and Councilmembers Mathieu Eugene, Alan Maisel, Carlos Menchaca, Mark Treyger, and Jumaane D. Williams were in attendance, among many others.

“The Selma to Montgomery marches signify a major turning point in our nation’s history,” said Eugene. “It is very important that we all come together to commemorate these momentous events that contributed so much to the ideals of this nation. We should all continue to work together to ensure that America remains the land where everyone can equally benefit from what we call a democracy.”

“The fight for equality is a universal effort that continues 50 years after the historic march on Selma,” added Treyger. “We must keep working as a city and nation to ensure fairness, equity and justice in all areas of our life and build on the lessons learned over the past half century. We can do much more to fight the forms of inequity that still exists in our society, so I am honored to march alongside Borough President Adams and connect the legacy of Selma to New York City.”