Selma! 50 Years Later: "Remember, Recommit, and Restore."

The first Black U.S. President of three of the most important civil rights milestones in America's tortured racial history, President Obama and his family will pay homage, again: 

• In 2013,  President Obama spoke at the 50th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
• Last year, President Obama addressed the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• Today, President  Obama and his family will lead a tribute at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of what became known as "Bloody Sunday," when police set upon scores of people marching from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest their inability to vote, clobbering and tear-gassing them until they were bloody.

"We should be commemorating Selma, but today the cause for celebration has been marred by Shelby," Jackson said, referring to the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that resulted in the high court calling on Congress to revise the formula used to decide which communities should require federal approval before changing voting rules. Congress has yet to do so.
Jackson said that the Shelby ruling amounted to "taking away the keys but leaving us with the car."

"We are at a critical moment," said Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest daughter. "We can keep reacting, or we can finally make some critical changes like they did in the '50s and '60s."

On March 7, 1965 nearly 500 civil rights marchers were beaten back by police officers equipped with tear gas and clubs as they tried to cross the infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. On March 21, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a five-day march with crowds growing to 25,000 in a federally supported march for equality. The 54 mile march directly impacted the signing of Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Countless American heroes whose names are not in the history books, that are not etched on marble somewhere — ordinary men and women from all corners of this nation, all walks of life, black and white, rich and poor, students, scholars, maids, ministers — all who marched and who sang and organized to change this country for the better. 

Today, Selma still struggles to overcome its legacy.The city's population has declined by about 40 percent to 20,000 in the last 50 years and Dallas County's unemployment rate is nearly double the state average. Public schools in Selma are nearly all black; most whites go to private schools. Blacks lead the annual "Bloody Sunday" commemoration; whites lead an annual re-enactment of the 1865 "Battle of Selma" to attract Civil War re-enactors.

From March 5th through the 9th, all eyes will once again be on Selma as The Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday with a weekend of reflection around the theme  "Remember, Recommit, and Restore."

Thousands are expected to attend the festivities including U.S.Presidents, congressional representatives, national personalities, and entertainers.