The 56th Annual Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee is planning for completely online programming this year.
The event commemorates “Bloody Sunday,” the day in 1965 that over 500 civil rights demonstrators marched across the Edmund-Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Every year since, thousands have attended the jubilee in Selma to recreate the crossing of the bridge.
But this year, due to the coronavirus, the event is taking place in a completely virtual format.
Drew Glover, the principal coordinator of the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, said that organizing this year’s jubilee required major changes.
“This year in order to maintain the tradition of having an annual bridge crossing jubilee and trying to stay as true to the traditional programming as possible, it required us to pivot into a totally virtual format,” Glover said.
Glover said that the jubilee is important in bringing awareness to ongoing civil-rights issues and educating future activists.
“Our goal is to commemorate the history of what has happened but just as importantly, recommit to the struggle that still exists,” Glover said. “And be giving and developing skills in the next generation to be able to pick up the torch and carry on when we have our leaders transition.”
This year’s event will have three days of programming on the online event platform Hopin.
Among the programming will be appearances by civil rights activists Andrew Young and Dolores Huerta, musical performances, film screenings, and a virtual reenactment of the crossing of the Edmund-Pettus Bridge.
To register to attend the jubilee visit: https://www.selmajubilee.com/