Clinton and civil rights leaders remember bloody 1965 march in Selma, Alabama

President Clinton pays tribute to a defining moment in the civil rights movement as he and activists cross the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama

March 6, 2000
Web posted at: 7:53 a.m. EST (1253 GMT)

In this story: 'Blood began to flow' Mayor still in office A town of 'limited opportunities' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports.

SELMA, Alabama (CNN) -- President Clinton on Sunday marked the 35th anniversary of one of the seminal moments in the U.S. civil rights movement by joining the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others and crossing Selma, Alabama's Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police in 1965 attacked hundreds of marchers who were protesting racist voting laws.

"They were kept from the polls ... by systematic exclusion ... and they were kept away from the polls by violence," said Clinton at a ceremony just prior to crossing the bridge. "One of the reasons I came here today is to say to the families and those who remember ... we honor them for the patriots they were. They didn't die in vain."

Clinton called on the nation to join him in helping to erase racial and other forms of discrimination that remain in the United States.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, who took part in the protest and was beaten unconscious by Alabama state troopers on that historic day, welcomed the president's attendance at the ceremony.

"You didn't have to come here today, but you did. Thank you. What happened in Selma was a dark hour in U.S. history," Lewis said. The president of the U.S. couldn't come here in the 1960s, but he has come here today. This president has not only talked the talk, but he has also walked the walk."

Lewis was joined by other civil rights leaders including King's widow Coretta Scott King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

AUDIO President Clinton on Sunday revisited Selma, Alabama, 35 years after a violent clash between civil rights marchers and police 164K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Turned back from crossing the bridge, J.D. Reese remembers what happened that night 589K/55 sec. AIFF or WAV sound   GALLERY Revisit Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965    VIDEO CNN's Aram Roston visited Selma, Alabama, to find out what has changed and what has not since the "Bloody Sunday" march. (March 5) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K   MESSAGE BOARD The state of race relations

On March 7, 1965 -- known as "Bloody Sunday" -- state troopers with tear gas and batons attacked the 600 marchers at the bridge over the Alabama River as they attempted to march to the Capitol in Montgomery, 50 miles away.

"You could hear the horses' hooves on the pavement and you see the cloud of gas," said J.D. Reese, a march organizer who was beaten severely on the bridge. "And you hear pandemonium -- people screaming, people hollering. There was disbelief in a sense."

Reese added, "They toppled those marchers over as if you were toppling bowling pins in a bowling alley. Then they took the billy clubs on one end (of the bridge) and began to beat heads. Blood began to flow."

The images of the bloodied marchers so horrified President Lyndon Johnson that he demanded Congress pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, sealing Selma's legacy as a turning point in the fight for civil rights.

More than three decades ago in places like Selma, segregationists seemed to hold all the power. People like Selma Mayor Joe Smitherman, who took office in 1964.

Eight elections later, he is still the town mayor. But he says he has had a complete change of heart after Congress gave African-Americans the right to vote and after he started working with black City Council members.

As one of those council members, Reese said he managed to work with the once-segregationist mayor. But Reese also said social changes have not been complete.

"If anyone thinks that racism is dead, then they are just fooling themselves -- not only in the South, but all over this country," said Reese.

Bennie Crenshaw, a black woman, now sits on the Selma City Council.

"Some people think that we're worse off now than we were back then," Crenshaw said. "Only thing we have is the right to vote. And because things have not changed environmentally, economically -- there's voter apathy (and) we don't even exercise that."

On March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers swinging clubs and spraying tear gas broke up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama

Some black residents of Selma also say economic opportunities just aren't there for them. Unemployment overall in the town is twice the national average.

Lonnie Brown works two full-time jobs and makes just $25,000 a year.

"Selma's still a town that has limited opportunities," Brown said.

Another issue that bothers some people is that decades after the desegregation of the school system, it is virtually segregated once again -- in practice.

The public high school -- once attended only by whites -- is now 99.5 percent black. White parents often send their children to a private academy just a few miles away, where there is not a single black student.

Mayor Smitherman thinks Selma is in for more change, changes that he may not live to see.

"The only thing that stuns people is that in a majority black city, you still have a white mayor. Well, you may be looking at the last white mayor in Selma," said Smitherman.

"I'll just be a footnote in history -- the segregationist mayor of Selma."

Correspondent Aram Roston, White House Correspondent Major Garrett and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Selma to Montgomery March 1965 - 2000
Civil Rights.Org
AlaWeb - State of Alabama official site
Alabama Information Network
March to Selma, Alabama
Alabama Archives: Marching for Justice-Selma to Montgomery
National Voting Rights Museum

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