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Commemoration of 'Bloody Sunday' set in Alabama

Associated Press
Selma, Ala.
President Obama hugs Rep. John Lewis
US President Barack Obama (R) hugs US Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, one of the original marchers at Selma, during an event marking the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015. A bipartisan group will commemorate the march on Sunday.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

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Members of Congress plan to join civil rights activists and others for the annual commemoration of a day of racial violence in Selma.

A bipartisan group including Rep. John Lewis of Georgia is set to be on hand Sunday afternoon to recall "Bloody Sunday," the day in 1965 when voting rights protesters were attacked by police as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Lewis, then a young organizer, was among those injured. The violence set the stage for the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which helped build support for congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act months later.

The annual celebration drew tens of thousands of people in 2015, when then-President Barack Obama spoke near the base of the bridge as former President George W. Bush listened.

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