MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A group of black elected officials said Friday that they are pleased President Barack Obama is visiting Selma for the 50th anniversary of landmark civil rights legislation, but they believe he is coming on the wrong day.
The White House announced this week that Obama would visit Selma on Saturday, March 7.
Selma Sen. Hank Sanders and other black political leaders urged Obama to change his visit to Sunday, March 8, when Selma holds the annual commemoration of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march.
"We are always glad when the president comes, but Bloody Sunday is sacred. It's sacred because of the blood that was spilled on that Sunday," Sanders told a news conference.
Bloody Sunday refers to March 7, 1965, when civil rights marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. Televised images of the melee galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Obama's visit coincides on the exact anniversary of Bloody Sunday, but the community for decades has commemorated the event on the Sunday nearest the anniversary.
"That's the Sunday that caused America to look at itself," said Joe Reed, longtime leader of the Alabama Democratic Conference.
Selma's one-time Sunday of shame has turned into an annual celebration often drawing dignitaries from around the country, particularly prominent Democrats. Then-President Bill Clinton attended the 35th anniversary march. Vice President Joe Biden spoke in 2013. Obama attended the annual celebration as a presidential candidate in 2007.
The crescendo of the celebration each year is a Sunday march across the bridge, typically led by the visiting dignitaries.
Sanders said the annual march to the bridge will go forward Sunday as planned regardless of the presidential visit.
"Bloody Sunday is the reason he is president of the United States today. Bloody Sunday is the reason we are standing here as elected officials today," Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford said.