March 4, 2015

This Friday, Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J. and Assemblyman Gilbert “Whip” Wilson, D-Camden/Gloucester, will join a bipartisan Congressional delegation to visit Selma, Alabama and mark the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights march that ultimately led to the Voting Rights Act. The pilgrimage will be led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis.

The congressional pilgrimage to Alabama began in 1998 and this year’s contingent will include the largest group of lawmakers yet. The delegation will visit civil rights landmarks in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma before joining President Barack Obama to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when state troopers attacked marchers trying to cross Edmund Pettus Bridge into the state capital.

“I look forward to joining Congressman John Lewis, my colleagues from both parties, and my friend Assemblyman Whip Wilson to celebrate the Anniversary of the Selma marches,” Norcross said. “In defiance of segregation and repression, thousands of people walked the 54-mile highway from Selma to Montgomery. As we walk in their steps, we can celebrate how far we’ve come as a society and also recognize how far we still must go.”

Wilson recalls watching the incident as a youth. “Never could I have imagined that I would be traveling to such an historic site as a New Jersey Assemblyman,” Wilson said. “These are the men and women who made the big sacrifices, whose lesson we must never forget. People like Congressman John, who was there and still bears the scars.”

For more information on the 2015 Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage, please visit www.faithandpolitics.org.