National

Dem Powerhouses Mark Selma's Bloody Sunday

By Liane Hansen, Juan Williams

Published March 4, 2007 at 5:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama visit Selma, Ala., today to mark Bloody Sunday, an important anniversary in the civil-rights movement.

In 1965, about 600 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., to show support for voting rights. Six blocks into the march, they met violent resistance from state and local law enforcers.

That seminal event is marked each year with a brief march.

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Obama and Clinton gave dueling speeches at two churches just a block apart Sunday morning in Selma, Ala. T

he presidential contenders will later be joined by former president Bill Clinton in a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in commemoration of the 1965 voting-rights march.

National

Liane Hansen

Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.

Juan Williams

Juan Williams, one of America's leading journalists, is a news analyst, appearing regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. Knowledgeable and charismatic, Williams brings insight and depth — hallmarks of NPR programs — to a wide spectrum of issues and ideas.