By Blake Deshazo

The Selma Times-Journal

Selma will be one of the busiest cities in the country next week, as thousands of people will be welcomed into the Queen City to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches.

There will be plenty of things to keep visitors busy during there stay thanks to a calendar full of events from the city and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The celebration starts Thursday, as Selma Mayor George Evans welcomes everyone to Selma for the 50th anniversary at the Performing Arts Center at 5 p.m.

“The Life of Jimmie Lee Jackson,” a play that tells the story of the civil rights activist, will follow the welcome at 5:45 p.m.

The opening night of the commemoration will be capped off with a memorial service for martyrs of the movement and a mass meeting at 7 p.m. at Tabernacle Baptist Church and the Miss Jubilee Pageant at the School of Discovery, which also starts at 7 p.m.

Friday’s schedule of events starts at 6:30 a.m. with the Jubilee Golf Tournament and doesn’t end until 9 p.m. with the “Stomp Out to Vote” step show at 7 p.m.

There will be plenty to do Friday, as there is a film festival, mock trial and inductions into the Legal Guardians Hall of Fame and the Women’s Hall of fame planned.

The film festival will be start at 4 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center. The trial starts at 5 p.m. in the Concordia College Auditorium. The inductions will be held back-to-back starting at 3:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. at the National Voting Rights Museum.

The city is also sponsoring events Friday, as the Music of the Movement Forum with Berry Gordy is scheduled for 9 a.m. and “Through Those Ebony Eyes,” which is a discussion with national media that covered the movement. The discussion is planned for 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. Locations have yet to be announced for both events.

The city will finish off its Friday festivities with the inaugural 50th Anniversary Commemoration Awards Ceremony and Dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the George Evans Reception Hall.

Saturday’s Jubilee schedule will offer more than 15 workshops for visitors to attend, which will cover a variety of topics, such as the role of education, voting rights, and segregation.

There are 14 other events planned for Saturday, March 7. The day will begin with the Foot Soldiers Breakfast at 8 a.m. at R.B. Hudson Middle School, which will honor people that participated in the fight for equal voting rights in 1965. The Jubilee Parade will follow the breakfast at 9 a.m. from Selma High School.

The Jubilee Street Festival will begin at 11 a.m.. Tickets are $12 in advance and $20 at the gate. The festival features blues, gospel, hip-hop and R&B musicians.

The Freedom Flame Awards Gala, which honors the men and women that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.

President Obama is expected to speak at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge sometime between noon and 2 p.m. Saturday.

The city’s big day will be capped off with a CeCe Winans concert at Selma High School. Winans, who is a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer, is scheduled to perform at 7 p.m.

The Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast will start the day Sunday at 7:30 a.m. at Wallace Community College Selma.

The many churches in and around Selma will hold Sunday morning services starting at 10 a.m.

Visitors can prepare for the bridge crossing at the pre-march rally at Brown Chapel at 2:30 p.m. From there, people will march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to pay homage to those that marched on Bloody Sunday.

The celebration of the 50th anniversary will conclude Monday with the Selma to Montgomery March at 8 a.m.

For a full schedule of events, visits www.selmajubilee.com and www.Selma50Iwasthere.com.