Thousands Flood Selma Bridge

The police chief in Selma, Ala., where thousands had gathered to mark 50 years since the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, said on Sunday a symbolic procession marking the anniversary had to be cancelled because the bridge was overcrowded, USA Today reported. Few people heeded the warning, however, and the march appeared to continue. Half a century ago, some 600, mostly black, protestors marching for civil rights were savaged by Selma's all-white police force, shocking the conscience of America and helping pave the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those marching said they were determined to not only remember Selma in 1965 but also make a renewed push for voting rights that have been increasingly rolled back after the Supreme Court in 2013 ruled against a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.