Martina Treviño/The Collegian
Members of the TR Campus African-American Student Organization and its supporters participated in the Fort Worth Martin Luther King Jr. parade Jan. 17.
Joshua Robinson, organization president, said the float the group created was a tribute to the three Selma-to-Montgomery marches and the events at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
The first march ended in tragedy with police halting and attacking the marchers as they attempted to cross the bridge, Robinson said.
On March 7, about 600 people attempted to cross the Alabama River on their way to Montgomery. Their path was blocked by Alabama state troopers and local police, who refused them passage and ordered them to turn back. Upon the protesters’ refusal, the officers shot tear gas and beat the protesters with billy clubs.
As a result, more than 50 people were hospitalized, and the day became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
King called for supporters to hold a second march, which was halted at the same bridge by a court-issued restraining order. A third attempt, by more than 23,000 participants on March 21, 1965, was successful in crossing the bridge because they received protection through a federal act.
“The float emphasizes the crossing of the bridge as a symbolic breakthrough for the Civil Rights Movement,” Robinson said.
— Martina Treviño
