George Sallie, who marched on Bloody Sunday, dies at 94

George Sallie, who marched on Bloody Sunday, dies at 94

George Sallie, a Korean War vet who marched in Selma on “Bloody Sunday,” has died. He was 94.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell tweeted about Sallie’s passing, noting Sallie was the oldest surviving “Foot Soldier” from Bloody Sunday — the name given to March 7, 1965, when police and a public mob attacked civil rights marchers as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

“My heart breaks to hear (of) the passing of Mr. George Sallie, our oldest Foot Soldier from Bloody Sunday,” Sewell wrote. “At 94, he never missed a Commemoration, and last year I was honored to be with him on the front line with @POTUS as he marched for the final time.”

Sallie was a 36-year-old Korean War vet when he marched on Selma and on to Montgomery. He was one of many who were met with violence, forever after sporting an inch-long scar below his hairline where a member of the “redneck posse” had split Sallie’s head open with a baton.

“I fought for my country in Korea for someone else’s freedom, and then came home and realized I didn’t have freedom of my own. Everywhere I tried to get a job, I was discriminated against — folks couldn’t vote, which is why we had the Selma marches back then,” Sallie told VICE News in a 2015 interview. “What’s the use of having legislation to protect our right to vote if it ends up being gutted?”

Last March, Sallie joined hands with President Joe Biden during Biden’s visit to Selma for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Sallie walked on one side of the President, while Annie Pearl Avery — another surviving Foot Soldier — walked on the other. Sewell was among those who also walked with the President.

A month later, the Dallas County Commission honored Sallie with a plaque commemorating his courage and bravery during the Civil Rights movement, according to the Selma Times Journal.