Birmingham, AL – President Barack Obama says he will never forget pushing the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. He says crossing that historic bridge with Shuttlesworth a few years ago was important because the bridge is a symbol of the sacrifices that Shuttlesworth and others made in the name of equality.
Obama was in Selma in March 2007 for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee, which commemorates the day law enforcement officers beat civil rights marchers trying to cross the bridge. Obama recalled his trip to Selma after Shuttlesworth died Wednesday in a Birmingham hospital. He was 89.
Obama said America owes Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude for advancing the cause of justice.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)