The Fight’s Not Over: We Walked Edmund Pettus Bridge 60 Years After Bloody Sunday

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

It has been 60 years since Dr. King and SCLC joined forces with Mukasa Dada and SNCC to organize and mobilize the calls for voting rights into a full-fledged campaign for human rights in Selma, Alabama. We often talk about one day in particular, c, but we know little about the work and the people behind the so-called civil rights movement of the 1960s. Just like you and millions around the world, I now have been to the bridge, took my photos at the courthouse and attended the Selma Jubilee. But did you know that today’s civil rights movement is following suit with the freedom fighters of years past? Neither did I, until I spoke with them and learned their stories firsthand.

Without knowing it, the current movement is mimicking tactics and strategies of the 60s. The biggest similarity wasn’t the protesting but the nationwide coordination after deaths and violent events against our people. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organization was the yang to MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). SNCC was organized by one of the GOATs in organizing Ella Baker. She brought together youth, mostly college students and had them for the SNCC organization. SCLC was spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King and was made up of three 30-something youth pastors who were great mobilizers of the people and the resources. According to Mukasa Dada (formerly known as Wille Ricks), who was already actively organizing with others like Kwame Toure and SNCC members in Lowndes County and all across the south. What both groups’ instincts told them about Alabama was that the masses would be moved to protest, march, canvas, or even publicly express dissent when bad things happen to good people. Sound familiar?

Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty

Just like our movement of today, they have their own Trayvon Martin moments where the collective consciousness of our people is heightened after tragedy. Their Trayon went by the name of Emmett Till. A 14-year-old boy unjustly kidnapped by a white mob, strangled, mutilated and lynched in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white girl by the name of Carolyn Bryant Donham. Later the world found out that this was a false accusation. She was never tried for crimes.

Ferguson was their Bloody Sunday on repeat for over a month in August back in 2014 after the killing of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The activists of the 1960s organized boycotts just like the current boycott that started on February 28th of this year after corporations like Target and others ended their unfulfilled 2020 promises after the Freedom Summer of 2020. And protest leader turned movement leader Darren Seals was assassinated just like Medgar Evers back in 1963. The parallels between campaigns for justice in places like Selma or Sanford, FL aligned with 2010 uprisings like Baltimore in 2015 or Baton Rouge in 2016 reaffirmed what I always knew about movement. If you educate, activate and support the youth, then your movement will make a lasting impact for generations to come, just like here in Selma. 

Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty

Most veterans of Bloody Sunday don’t call each other comrades or protestors, but a preferred term for many is foot soldier. I spoke to Mrs. Givan about her experiences which reminded me of me. She was just a freshman in high school when the movement came to Selma. She recalls her classmate and childhood friend coming to school with his head scarred due to billy clubs. This ignited students across Dallas County Black schools to skip classes to go to non-violent direct action training so they could be better prepared. This was similar to Rev Osagyefo Sekou training me and over 20,000 activists between 2014-2015.

You see, though they missed state-sanctioned class, they were taught by the people in the struggle, aka Real Life High School. 

Consider this: the person who trained me, Obi Jr., was trained by Kwame Toure, who was trained by Ella Baker.

So many organizations and activists of today who have been trained through BLM can trace their training back to training in 2014, which came from Black people nearly 100 years ago.

Source: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / Getty

As I stand feet flat on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I am filled with reverence and anger. I stand here on the giants of great people who resisted and presided over freedom. 

But, I am also reminded that though we may participate in famous protests, relics of white supremacy will still exist until the job is organized and done. The fact that the bridge is still named after a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in 2025 tells me that my generation and the few behind us still have some work to do. Good thing we have some foot soldiers still around so we may learn from their mistakes and successes. For that, I am forever grateful.

Peace.

Tory Russell is a Ferguson Uprising organizer, internationally recognized Black movement leader, speaker and political strategist. He currently serves as the Director of Organizing at the International Black Freedom Alliance. He has previously written and created content for NewsOne, such as iOne Digital’s groundbreaking podcast series, “Witness to History: Ferguson 10. He has previously been seen on and contributed to media outlets like Ebony, Essence, BET, Revolt TV, Black Agenda Report, CNN, MSNBC and many others globally.

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