The Edmund Pettus Bridge: An AR Experience
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama is one of the most pivotal sites in the history of the civil rights movement and an important milestone in the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1965, Dr. King pointed to Selma as an egregious example of the disenfranchisement of Black Americans. King was integral in planning a massive protest march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the state capitol of Montgomery.
A first march, on March 7th, resulted in violence. Led by John Lewis, without King in attendance, the activists were brutally attacked and repelled by local police in an event later called Bloody Sunday. National television networks broadcast the violence into the homes of millions of Americans.
After turning around a second march while waiting for a federal court order that would guarantee the protestors’ protection, Dr. King headed a third one that began on March 21, 1965. He led thousands of activists across the bridge towards the state capital of Montgomery. This time they were escorted by the Alabama National Guard.
Four days later, on the steps of the Capitol building, King gave a triumphant speech to 25,000 supporters. Over the years, the Edmund Pettus Bridge has remained a symbol of both unity and division.
In 1979, around 50 members of the KKK crossed the bridge in an attempt to erase the memory of Dr. King’s route. It should be noted that the bridge itself is named after a Confederate
general, who also was a KKK leader.
In 2015, former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, along with John Lewis and other survivors of the original Bloody Sunday, linked arms and walked over the bridge, in tribute to what King and the protestors did 50 years earlier.
And just last year, John Lewis’s funeral procession crossed over the Alabama River, retracing the road from Selma to Montgomery.
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