'Bloody Tuesday' 59th Anniversary Program Set For Sunday

TUSCALOOSA, AL — First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa will once again commemorate the most violent day in its history and in the fight for equality in Tuscaloosa during the Civil Rights Movement.

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The 59th Anniversary of Bloody Tuesday will be observed with a program at the historic church, which will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 4.

The theme of this year's event is "Freedom Ain't Free."

Bloody Tuesday occurred on June 9, 1964, when upwards of 600 peaceful demonstrators gathered at the church to march in protest of the new county courthouse and its segregated bathrooms and water fountains.

Demonstrators were met with fire hoses, tear gas and physical violence from police and a club-wielding mob, resulting in 33 people being hospitalized and 94 arrested.

Fortunately, no one was killed in the violence, but the event was a pivotal one in Alabama, coming nearly a year before demonstrators were beaten by state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on "Bloody Sunday."

Click here to read Tuscaloosa Patch's in-depth historical account of that fateful day — Ghosts Of Bloody Tuesday: Remembering 'Tuscaloosa's Freedom Summer" — as told by the people who lived it.

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