ROANOKE, Va.- – The community marched across the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge in remembrance of the Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. It was a series of protest to gain equal voting rights for blacks.
April 4, 2019, also marks 51 years since the assassination of the civil rights leader. The 39-year-old minister was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Roanoke held this service honoring King.
"To me he is my hero. Always have and always will be because he respected all races of people. And he wanted all of us to come together," said Perneller Chubb-Wilson, president of the SCLC Roanoke Chapter.
The voting rights act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.