Edmund Pettus Bridge Walk
6 US-80, Selma, AL
Selma, AL
The steel arch bridge over the Alabama River where marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday and, weeks later, set out to win the right to vote.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a steel arch that carries U.S. Highway 80 over the Alabama River at Selma, and it is one of the most important places in the history of American democracy. On March 7, 1965, a day now known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and a sheriff's posse attacked peaceful marchers as they crossed the bridge on their way toward Montgomery to demand the right to vote. Television footage of the beatings shocked the country.
In the weeks that followed, protesters returned, and on the third attempt they crossed the bridge and completed a march to the Alabama Capitol under federal protection. The outrage over Bloody Sunday and the courage of the marchers helped push the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. Today people from around the world come to walk across the bridge, retracing those steps over the river.
What Guests Love
- Walking across the same bridge where the voting rights marches began
- The view of the wide, slow Alabama River from the crest of the span
- The interpretive center that tells the story of Bloody Sunday and the march
- Standing at a place that helped change the nation's voting laws
Worth Knowing
- The bridge carries live highway traffic, so use the pedestrian walkway and cross with care
- This is a place of solemn history, so approach a walk across it thoughtfully
- The National Park Service interpretive center nearby helps set the context before you walk
- Selma summers are hot and humid, so a morning or evening visit is more comfortable
Details
Selma, AL
Learn about Edmund Pettus Bridge Walk
The road to Selma
By the early 1960s, Black residents made up a large share of Selma and the surrounding Dallas County, yet almost none were registered to vote. A web of discriminatory tests, intimidation, and violence kept them off the rolls across the Black Belt, the band of dark, fertile soil that gave the region its name and its plantation history. Local activists and national civil rights organizations came together in Selma to challenge that system directly.
The campaign built through early 1965 with marches, arrests, and mass meetings, and it turned deadly in February when a young activist named Jimmie Lee Jackson was fatally shot by a state trooper in nearby Marion. In response, organizers planned a march from Selma to the state Capitol in Montgomery to bring their demand for voting rights to the seat of state power.
Bloody Sunday
On Sunday, March 7, 1965, roughly six hundred marchers set out from Selma and walked up and over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On the far side, a line of state troopers and mounted deputies ordered them to turn back and then charged, swinging clubs and firing tear gas into the crowd. Marchers were beaten and hospitalized, among them the young activist John Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull.
News cameras captured the attack, and the footage aired nationwide that evening. The images of unarmed people being beaten for seeking the vote stirred outrage across the country and drew clergy, students, and ordinary citizens to Selma to stand with the marchers. What had been a local campaign became a national reckoning.
The march to Montgomery and the Voting Rights Act
After a symbolic second attempt and a court fight, a federal judge affirmed the marchers' right to proceed, and President Lyndon Johnson called up federal protection. On March 21, 1965, thousands set out from Selma again, crossed the bridge, and walked the roughly fifty miles of Highway 80 to Montgomery over several days, sleeping in fields along the way. They reached the Alabama Capitol steps on March 25, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a crowd of tens of thousands.
The moral force of Selma helped move the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through Congress, a law that struck down the barriers that had kept Black Southerners from the ballot for generations. The route the marchers walked is now the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, and the bridge stands as its most powerful landmark.
Walking the bridge today
A walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a quiet, moving experience. From the crest of the arch you look out over the wide, slow Alabama River, then descend toward the spot where the troopers waited in 1965. The name on the bridge, honoring a Confederate general and reputed Klan leader, is itself part of the story, a reminder of the world the marchers set out to change, and there have been long-running conversations about whether it should be renamed.
Before or after your walk, the National Park Service interpretive center near the bridge and the local civil rights museums in Selma help set the events in context. Every year in early March, thousands gather in Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday and cross the bridge together in remembrance.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Selma
Selma Interpretive Center
At the foot of the bridge
A National Park Service center telling the story of the voting rights marches and the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail.
Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
About 13 miles, a 20 minute drive
The ghost town site of Alabama's first state capital, now quiet ruins and streets returning to nature along the river.
Montgomery
About 50 miles, an hour drive
The state capital and endpoint of the 1965 march, dense with civil rights landmarks including the Dexter Avenue church and the Legacy sites.