Bloody Sunday anniversary: Selma recalls Voting Rights Act

President Barack Obama, fourth from left, walks holding hands with Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was beaten during "Bloody Sunday," as they and the first family and others including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, left of Obama, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala,. for the 50th anniversary of the landmark event of the civil rights movement, Saturday, March 7, 2015. At far left is Sasha Obama and at far right is former first lady Laura Bush. Adelaide Sanford also sits in a wheelchair. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) President Barack Obama, fourth from left, walks holding hands with Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was beaten during "Bloody Sunday," as they and the first family and others including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, left of Obama, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala,. for the 50th anniversary of the landmark event of the civil rights movement, Saturday, March 7, 2015. At far left is Sasha Obama and at far right is former first lady Laura Bush. Adelaide Sanford also sits in a wheelchair. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By Associated Press March 8, 2015 1 min read

SELMA, Ala. (AP) – The city of Selma honored the late President Lyndon Johnson, signer of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as the Alabama city commemorated the 50th anniversary of the clash between police and civil rights marchers that galvanized support for the law.

Luci Baines Johnson accepted the award Sunday on behalf of her father, saying it means so much to her a half century later: “You remember how deeply Daddy cared about social justice and how hard he worked to make it happen.”

She said what happened in Selma changed the world, adding she witnessed the painful injustice of segregation as a child. She recalled standing behind her father as he signed the act into law.

A crowd of several hundred gave Johnson a standing ovation as some chanted, “L.B.J., L.B.J., L.B.J.”