Bloody Sundays: Remembering history
It's a half-hour until showtime in Selma, Ala., and the majority of the auditorium seats are already taken. Paramount…www.npr.org
On March 7, 1965, the term “Bloody Sunday” was applied to six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by the current Georgia 5th District House of Representative John Lewis and former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery.
Just short of the bridge, they found their path blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around.
When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.
"Image Ownership: Public Domain" Between 1961 and 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had led a…www.blackpast.org
On the morning of Sunday 30 January 1972, around ten thousand people gathered in Londonderry for a civil rights march. The British Army had sealed off the original route so the march organizers led most of the demonstrators towards ‘Free Derry Corner’ in the nationalist Bogside area of the city.
Despite this, a number of people continued on towards an army barricade where local youths threw stones at soldiers, who responded with a water cannon, CS gas and rubber bullets.
As the riot began to disperse, soldiers of the 1st Parachute Regiment were ordered to move in and arrest as many of the rioters as possible. In the minutes that followed, some of these paratroopers opened fire on the crowd, killing thirteen men and injuring 13 others, one of whom died some months later.
On the morning of Sunday 30 January 1972, around ten thousand people gathered in Londonderry for a civil rights march…www.bbc.co.uk
It was in the late 80's after the 1983 release of the album “War” by the rock band U2, that I heard the song “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in a bar in the suburbs of Washington DC.
I was immediately reminded of the history of the term “Bloody Sunday,” as I associated it with the horrible attacks against peaceful African-American protesters in Selma Alabama.
I considered, did U2 write a song about the protest in Selma Alabama that took place in 1965?
I did my own research (Before Google) and found the horrifying events that took place in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972, for which they also use the term “Bloody Sunday”.
It is incredible how similar events, were peaceful protesters try to bring attention to the masses of the civil injustices and prejudices they experience.
In both events the nonviolent protesters were viciously assaulted and the events in Northern Ireland, resulted in thirteen men and teenagers being killed.
As we approach the birthday celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, everyone in America and around the world should take a few minutes to reflect upon the sacrifices he and others like him gave for all humanity.
By engaging and understanding what mattered in our past, can we as a people engage and understand where we are today and where we may seek to go in the future.
