Actor Danny Glover attends Unity Day celebration in Selma

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

In 1963, students at RB Hudson High School in Selma — launched a non-violent march and a demonstration in response to the 16th Street Church bombing.

The 60th anniversary of those events were commemorated Friday in Selma.

The Unity Day celebration honored the student protestors — and it also included a reenactment of the non-violent student march.

Renowned actor and movie producer Danny Glover attended the celebration. He spoke at a breakfast program at RB Hudson. He told the audience, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”

“That’s why I’m here — to celebrate this 60 years,” said Glover.

“That’s not a little small bit of time. It’s a great bit of time, a generation. Movements have happened and continued — and brought change, extraordinary change to the world and to this country.”

After hearing about the 16th Street Church terrorist bombing in Birmingham that killed four young black girls — students at Hudson High organized a non-violent march — then conducted the city’s very first demonstration.

Civil Rights attorney and Hudson graduate Charles Bonner was one of the student leaders.

“The kids were killed on September 15th, a Sunday. Monday morning we stood at this door at Hudson High and told all the kids don’t go to class,” said Bonner.

“We decided we were going to have a sit in demonstration at Carter’s Drug Store. That was the very first demonstration, the very first blood, the beginning of the movement that lead to the passage of the ’64 Civil Rights Act and the ’65 voters rights act.”

The celebration also included a non-violence workshop at the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church.