March 2, 2023 Press Release

THE ARKANSAS MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. COMMISSION HOSTS DELEGATES FOR 58TH ANNUAL SELMA BRIDGE CROSSING JUBILEE 

CIVIL RIGHTS TOUR, EDUCATION ABOUT VOTING RIGHTS, HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COMMISSION’S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO SELMA 

JAYLEN SMITH, NATION'S YOUNGEST MAYOR, CONFIRMED TO ATTEND WITH COMMISSION 

Each year, the Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, a division of the Arkansas Department of Education, selects individuals from all four congressional districts to participate with thousands from across the country in the “Bloody Sunday” Reenactment and Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee. This annual event in Selma, Alabama, commemorates "Bloody Sunday," which occurred March 7, 1965, when a group of about 525 African American demonstrators gathered at Browns Chapel to demand the right to vote. Two weeks later, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and 3,200 civil rights protesters marched the 49 miles from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery—an event that prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. Every year on the first weekend in March, the Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates both the bloody confrontation at the Pettus Bridge and the March from Selma to Montgomery that followed. 

The Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission will host delegates to attend the 2023 Bridge Crossing Jubilee this weekend, March 3-5, 2023. En route, the Commission will host a Dream Keepers Civil Rights Tour. During the tour, the delegates will briefly observe a moment of silence at several significant historic sites. 

The delegates will participate in the Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Alabama on Sunday, March 5 to commemorate the marches for voting rights. “We are a nonpartisan agency. It is important to reignite our passion for voting and voter education and connect the youth attendees with the history and the martyrs who lost their lives for the importance of voting. These opportunities were not always available to us as African Americans. This is also an opportunity to honor the King legacy and commemorate the Voting Rights act of 1965,” says Scarbrough. Imagine, fifty-eight years ago, Dr. King was marching for voting rights, today we are traveling with an 18-year-old who has been elected. There has been a lot of progress. The foundation for Mayor Jaylen Smith was established in Selma. This is also a once in a lifetime opportunity for young people who are studying history to see the sites where history was made. The Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission also has partnerships with the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and other organizations that promote Dr. King and his involvement in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is our goal to meet up with these organizations for more educational activities to engage our youth and delegates. "