WASHINGTON - Army Brig. Gen. Arthur W. Hinaman, the land component commander for the District of Columbia National Guard, and Army Command Sgt. Maj. Richard Espinosa, lead a group of 200 Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., Monday.
The group walked in memory of the "Bloody Sunday" conflict when armed officers attacked peaceful civil rights demonstrators attempting to march to the state capital of Montgomery, Ala., on March 7, 1965.
Reserve component military representing the Army National Guard, Navy Reserve and Air Force Reserve are in Alabama from April 29 to May 11 in support of Operation Alabama Black Belt - a medical readiness and humanitarian exercise in support of three rural communities. Hundreds of local residents are receiving treatment.
Hinaman and Espinosa were visiting the D.C. Army Guard's medical detachment which is performing annual training as part of the humanitarian exercise.
The Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, were three marches that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma. When white resistance to black voter registration proved intractable, local blacks requested the assistance of Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought many prominent civil rights and civic leaders to support voting rights. Their work eventually turned the tide of history.