Winnie Mandela at Mayor’s office in Selma. Photo by Dale Rich
By Herb Boyd
Managing Editor, Our World Today
Selma, Alabama--Thousands of people marched here across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 7, to commemorate the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” a day that stands out in the history of the civil rights
movement.
Crossing the bridge in 1965 was by no means as easy as it was this time, and the recent event was made all the more memorable with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, hand-in-hand, with Winnie Mandela, singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Mandela’s appearance at the weeklong commemoration was significantly bolstered by such notables as Rep. John Lewis, who was savagely assaulted in 1965; Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph; Dr. Ron Daniels of the Haiti Support Project; Mark Thompson of Sirius XM Radio; Atlanta’s Joe Beasley of Rainbow PUSH; and Juanita Abernathy, widow of Ralph Abernathy.
“I feel like I’m home again,” Mandela told a packed Selma City Council chambers. “I bring you loads and loads of love from your ancestors.” She stressed the need to build a new movement and to challenge the current leadership.
