Staff Report

Water Avenue bustled during the 41st Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee festivities Saturday.

Residents and visitors gathered on Broad Street for the Jubilee parade, featuring several area high school bands, step teams, pageant winners, classic cars, and men and women on horseback.

A Drum Line Battle of the Bands followed in front of the Slavery and Civil War Museum.

R and B, gospel, blues and hip-hop artists took center stage during the Jubilee Festival.

Vendors set up shop along Water Avenue. No food was in short supply. Funnel cake, cotton candy, fried apple pie, barbeque, sausages, turkey legs, fried seafood and chicken on a stick were a just few of the day’s menu items.

Posters, clothing, jewelry were also for sale.

Jubilee will conclude today with several prominent figures speaking at area church services. The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Joseph Lowery are scheduled to speak at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church on Martin Luther King Street at 10:30 a.m.

The Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to speak at Tabernacle Baptist Church at 11 a.m. Sharpton will also speak at the Wiping of the Tears ceremony at 8:30 a.m. at the Selma Convention Center on Washington Street.

At 2 p.m., a pre-march rally will take place at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church.

The bridge crossing re-enactment commemorating Bloody Sunday will take place at 2:30 p.m. at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Following the re-enactment, honorees will be inducted into the Voting Rights Hall of Fame.

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is sponsored by the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.