Big names and big crowds attend annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The Vice President and the U.S. Attorney General joined — tens of thousands of people at the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee — to commemorate Bloody Sunday.

Security was tight Sunday at annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

Even co-founders of the event Hank Sanders and Faya Toure — along with state and local officials — had to have credentials and pass through a Secret Service security check-point — to get into the area near the Edmund Pettus Bridge — where the Vice President was scheduled to speak.

Big names attend the event every year — and thousands of people come to continue to fight for voting rights.

“Our voting rights are at risk. And we need to come out and remind this nation that we had to fight to get the right to vote. And it has not 59 years later been secured,” said Rev. Al Sharpton.

“So, we’re here to not only remember but to recommit.”

“The voting rights of our people still under attack,” said Tuskegee City Councilman Johnny Ford.

“We must fight until we get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed.”

People come to march in support of public education — accessible and affordable healthcare — and to protect and maintain democracy itself.

Charles Sims is a descendant of Senator James Z. George of Mississippi — a friend and colleague of Edmund Pettus — as well as one of the architects of the Jim Crow Laws.

“My great-grandfather created the laws why John Lewis had to walk across that bridge to begin with. And I believe it was important here to come to support the community, support voting rights and support and stand for the legacy of John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King,” said Sims.

“There’s more that unites us than divides us.”