SELMA - 50th Anniversary

"What challenges remain for Selma 50 years since march?" PBS NewsHour 3/9/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Over the weekend, visitors like President Obama and nearly 100 members of Congress flocked to Selma, Alabama, to celebrate the anniversary of a civil rights milestone.  But 50 years since protesters defiantly crossed the city's iconic Edmund Pettus bridge, Selma remains a deeply divided city with many challenges.  Gwen Ifill reports.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the voting rights march across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge that was an epic turning point in the civil rights and voting rights movements.

The entire 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery is being reenacted beginning today.  But this weekend was all about Selma, then and now.

Terri Sewell spent the weekend pinching herself.  She shared a stage with the President.

REP. TERRI SEWELL, (D) Alabama:  Good afternoon, America.  Welcome to my hometown of Selma.

GWEN IFILL:  And she visited her old haunts.

REP. TERRI SEWELL:  That’s my home church, Brown Chapel.  And while I think the world comes in just for a weekend, just for one day to walk across the bridge, but the people of this city are amazing people.

GWEN IFILL:  Once Selma High School’s first black valedictorian and now a member of Congress now, by way of Princeton and Oxford, Sewell represents the modern-day divide in her iconic hometown.

REP. TERRI SEWELL:  I’m-second generation Selmian.  My dad grew up in the ’40s, and he grew up in a segregated Selma public school system.  I grew up in the ’80s.  I grew up in an integrated public school system.  And now, 35 years later, it’s re-segregated again.

GWEN IFILL:  The visitors flocked to Selma from around the nation and the world for a weekend of celebration.  Two Presidents, nearly 100 members of Congress and more than 100,000 people crowded into the small Alabama city over two days.

"Finding hope and reality in Obama’s speech at Selma" PBS NewsHour 3/9/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Gwen Ifill talks to Nia-Malika Henderson of The Washington Post and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report about President Obama’s speech at the 50th anniversary of the bloody protest at Selma, Alabama, and how the 2016 Presidential race could be impacted by the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s personal email use.