sisters On the streets
The first march, on March 7, 1965, known as “Bloody Sunday,” aimed to travel from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama. This 54-mile journey was organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in partnership with other civil rights organizations.
The march began at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, a historic center of the Black community. The marchers, a diverse group of African Americans, including many women and children, along with white supporters, sought to peacefully protest the denial of their voting rights.
However, as the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met with brutal violence from state troopers.
In an emotional retelling, sisters describe the horrors of the infamous “Bloody Sunday.”
The six Sisters from St. Louis had a prominent position in the March 15 protest, and their distinct identity as religious did not guarantee their safety. Just a few days before, the Reverend James Reeb, a white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston, was beaten to death by a white mob armed with clubs.
Sr. Rosemary Flanigan of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet recalls how other male marchers surrounded them for their protection…
“If they were going after clergyman, why wouldn’t they go after the nuns?”