MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Facing a sea of state troopers, Charles Mauldin was near the front line of voting rights marchers who strode across the now-infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965.

The violence that awaited them shocked the nation and galvanized support for the passage of the U.S. Voting Rights Act a few months later.

Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of the landmark legislation becoming law. Those at the epicenter of the fight for voting rights for Black Americans recalled their memories of the struggle, and expressed fear that those hard-won rights are being eroded.

Bloody Sunday in Alabama, 1965

Mauldin was 17 when he joined the ill-fated “Bloody Sunday” march. John Lewis, who became a longtime Georgia congressman, and Hosea Williams were the first pa

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