Marchers set off on journey from Selma to Montgomery

This group is walking from Selma to Montgomery on U.S. Highway 80 to retrace the steps of those who took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march of 1965. Photo from WAKA Action 8 News

About 50 people who want to retrace the steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march of 1965 have set off on their own journey.

This morning, they began their 54-mile march. They will go 12 miles per day, just like the original marchers did 60 years ago. They plan to arrive in Montgomery on Friday.

Erica Washington with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is one of the leaders of the march and has been participating in these symbolic reenactments for the past six years.

Her inspiration is the the Bloody Sunday marchers. They were beaten as the crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, hoping to reach Montgomery as they fought for equal voting rights for all. Later that month, the march to Montgomery was completed with 25,000 people joining in. Those efforts led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail on U.S. Highway 80 commemorates the events, people and route of the 1965 voting rights march in Alabama.

The group hopes that thousands of people will join them at the steps of the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery on Friday when they complete their journey.

The march was organized by the Selma to Montgomery Foundation and the SCLC.