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- Members of the ELCA delegation that traveled to Selma stand on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
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- Ian McConnell (center), a student at the ELCA’s Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., stands with Bishop Paul L. Leeland from the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (left), and Neil McDavid, director for Conference Ministries of the United Methodist Church.
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- The ELCA delegation meets with Maxine Waters, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California, and Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor.
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- The ELCA 2013 Churchwide Assembly asked ELCA members to call on local, state and federal governments to guarantee the right to vote to all citizens and to discourage or eliminate all laws, ordinances or regulations that would have the effect of racial and ethnic discrimination in the exercise of that right.
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- Crowds gather on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where on March 7, 1965, protestors demonstrating for the right to vote departed from Selma for Montgomery and were met by law enforcement as they crossed the bridge. The events of that day – also known as Bloody Sunday – led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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- John Lewis (center), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia, was one of the many civil rights leaders who marched in Selma 50 years ago.
Some members of the ELCA joined civil rights activists, faith leaders and elected officials, including President Barack Obama, in Alabama March 7-8 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march. The ELCA social statement “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture,” adopted by the ELCA 1993 Churchwide Assembly, expresses the ELCA’s calling to regard seriously culture and ethnicity, confront racism, to engage in public leadership, witness and deliberation, and to advocate for justice and fairness for all people.
