Special Event

Event

Bridge Crossing Jubilee

Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail

Fee:

Free. Most events are free and open to the public, a select few events have a fee.

Location: LAT/LONG: 32.406620, -87.019224


Events take place throughout Selma, culminating to a march and rally across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Dates & Times

Date:

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Time:

8:00 AM

Duration:

11 hours

Type of Event

Festival
Partner Program

Events throughout the weekend and the week leading up to the Jubilee.


Description

Visitor Centers will observe extended hour during this special event. On Sunday, March 5, 2023, our Lowndes and Montgomery visitor centers will be open 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., the Selma Visitor Center will be open 11:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

This annual event in Selma, Alabama, commemorates "Bloody Sunday," which occurred March 7, 1965 when a group of about 525 African-American demonstrators gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to demand the right to vote. They walked six blocks to Broad Street and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they were met by more than 50 state troopers and a few dozen possemen on horseback. When the demonstrators refused to turn back, they were brutally beaten.

Every year on the first weekend in March, the Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates both the bloody confrontation at the Pettus Bridge and the march from Selma to Montgomery that followed. Events include a parade, a Miss Jubilee Pageant, a mock trial, and a commemorative march to the bridge. Every five years, celebrants continue all the way to Montgomery.

In previous years, congressmen and women, presidents, and vice presidents, have been in attendance, as well as many other notable historical figures.

View the detailed schedule of events.


More information

Reservation or Registration: No