Doris Lloyd, Selma, Alabama Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell |
Residents of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana., traveled to Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of " Bloody Sunday," the Selma to Montgomery March, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President Obama marked the 50th Anniversary Marches from Selma to Montgomery where thousands gathered.
African American people of Tangipahoa Parish realize that the struggle for equality and human rights are still challenges that we face today. People carrying signs that said 50 years later and we're still fighting for equality. The Edmund Pettus bridge is a reminder of the blood that were shed and lives that were loss for our right to vote. The African American churches in the parishes sured set a goal to hold an annual voter registration drive as well as protect the right to vote.
Jimmie Lee Jackson was a civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama, and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and shot by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson was unarmed and died eight days later in the hospital.