The population of the small historic town of Selma, Alabama swells once a year as people from around the nation flock to its downtown, its churches before finally gathering for the crescendo event — walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The path to the bridge Sunday was filled with thousands of people gathered to make the pilgrimage across the Alabama River to commemorate a seminal moment in Civil Rights history they vowed to always remember.

It was 60 years ago that about 600 protesters preparing to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were brutally beaten by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies in what became known as Bloody Sunday.

The graphic violence grabbed national attention and hastened passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Now, 60 years later, several surviving original marchers and leaders from the era were escorted across the bridge as they sat in wheelchairs. The faces of many of those around them were decades younger than the events they gathered to commemorate.

“You invite more people to the table to learn the story,” said Joshua J. Raby a 36-year-old political activist from Birmingham. “We will keep the story alive, and then others start coming. They will go home and tell the story, and now those people want to come and see what it is about this bridge.”

While the crowd participants in Selma were majority Black there remained noticeable diversity. A white woman with short white hair sported a windbreaker from historically black Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. Two young white women carried homemade signs urging others to embrace diversity and acceptance.

A group of Asian women carried a banner calling for “Peace Justice & Equality” from the Nikkei Progressives, a grassroots social activists group formed in 2016.

Raby said the story of Bloody Sunday is one part of a larger historical narrative that must be protected regardless of the years that pass or the direction of the political winds.

“Black folks are always going to fight for what’s ours,” Raby said.

On the 60th anniversary, speakers and pilgrims talked about persevering and retaining longstanding goals of civil rights.

“Things are rocky right now and it’s hard to get our message over to others,” said Glenda Johnson, who traveled from Junction City, Kansas for the first time to attend the event with his husband and family. “We need to be together. We need to come together and we need not be against each other.”

“We’ve never been a part of this but thank God we are here today.”

Patrick Turner, 11, from Madison, Tennessee was part of Johnson’s family group waiting to cross the bridge.

“I came out here because I wanted to see what they had to go through back then,” he said.

Rev. Jesse Jackson among attendees

The Rev. Jesse Jackson still commands a room whenever he enters as a people flock to greet him, take photos or silently turn their cell phones onto record mode from their seats.

Jackson’s handshake remains firm, even though the 83-year-old now uses a wheelchair for mobility and his world-wide recognized voice is silenced by the ravages of Parkinson’s.

Jackson instantly made eye contact and extended his hand with a seated patron as the civil rights luminary was wheeled from the dining room at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel just a day before he appeared in Selma.

Jackson was among dozens of notable figures from the present and the past who filled the hotel a day before buses of VIPs would travel less than an hour to the annual commemoration.

At the time of the march, Jackson was among the young activists and protégées of Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders at the height of the Civil Rights era.

Now 60 years later, he is an elder and a member of a fading roster of foot soldiers and tacticians who recall the era with first-hand accounts.

Wynola Fuller, who lives in Fairfield, remembers the events of 1965. She also remembers going to Selma previously in her youth to visit relatives. Yet, Sunday was Fuller’s first time returning to commemorate Bloody Sunday and walk across the rusting arched bridge.

“I was just amazed at the number of people and also the different people in terms of the groups they represented and the ethnic diversity of the group and their location,” she said, noting seeing some visitors as far away as New York.

Fuller, who is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, called it imperative that younger people understand their history and its significance.

“My involvement has always been around what can I interact with you about, the younger the better, because the young people are open and they want to learn,” she said. “Too many times elder people like to talk to with older elders who agree with them versus trying to pass on the tradition.”

Fuller affirmed her commitment to engaging others in her community.

“It’s a journey for all of us, and unless we bring somebody along with us, we’ve failed,” she said. “So that’s my hope, that I will be conscious about everyone around me and focus on our youth.”

Call to action

Several people in speeches and interactions called the need to preserve the history and use it for future inspiration even more pressing in a changed political and cultural environment, they said takes direct aim at them, their history and their right to full participation.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, told AL.com that Selma’s gathering should also serve as a call of action.

Morial said President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to “repeal, undercut and dismantle” civil gains through their recent series of executive actions.

“This is also a rallying cry to push back against what we are seeing today,” he said. “You keep telling the story and you have to let people know that, while we have made change, change is incomplete, while we have made progress, the progress is far from complete.”

Morial said there are numerous examples of laws that seek to suppress voters, including efforts in Alabama.

“I do feel that this is one of the great threats of modern times,” he said referring to the country’s conservative shift. “Those of us on the outside are working hard to sustain. We’re going to defend democracy. We’re going to demand diversity, equity and inclusion, and we’re going to fight for economic policies that destroy poverty.”

Speaking at the end of the bridge following the march, Alabama Congressman Shomari Figures warned that long fought and hard-earned victories could fade away.

“Our failure to vote has consequences,” the Democrat from Mobile said. “We are seeing those consequences right now.”

Figures criticized Trump for massive cuts to the government led by tech billionaire Elon Musk among other actions. Figures also cited a proposal to sell the Freedom Riders Museum historic site in Montgomery.

Both he and Rep. Terri Sewell, a Selma native living in Birmingham, have assailed any notion of selling the historic site.

While most of the elected leaders at the various churches, breakfast events and dinners throughout the weekend were Democrats, there were some Republicans such as Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a supporter of President Trump.

‘Reconcile the historical narrative of our shared past’

The weekend of commemoration activities has practical implications, historian Majella Chube Hamilton told AL.com.

“The annual commemoration affords us an opportunity to reconcile the historical narrative of our shared past, while actively addressing present realities. They were steadfast. We must be as well,” said Hamilton who is executive director of the Ballard House Project, a Birmingham-based historical site and cultural preservation initiative.

“As we build bridges to the past, we must commit to look beyond ourselves to strengthen voting rights today and support those seeking equitable opportunities and economic solutions in precious Alabama communities like Selma and elsewhere.”