to step in and understand. when we open the door for african-americans, the doors open for all. indeed. and betty, there s a lot of passion here that you that is inside and outside of brown chapel ame. the issue of the right to vote. the voting rights act. very salient here today on this commemoration of the 50th anniversary of that march over the bridge in 1965. back to you, betty. without a doubt. thanks so much. we ll be checking in with you later. but right now, we want to go to trymaine lee. folks are not so much excited, but they are committed to taking part in this continuum of the push for voting rights. i m a little further down the street from where brown chapel is where the reverend al sharpton is now delivering the final sermon. there are hundreds of people gathering along the sides of the streets of the courtyards around the church. ready for this mile mile and a
i.d. and there s a sense that those things are taken away our right to vote suppressing our right to vote. but once again, i feel this should empower people to know that we can make a difference. gloria, martin luther king iii spoke inside of brown chapel today. he talked about not feeling like this was a celebration and feeling that it really needed to be something more sober and serious. and he put forward three ideas he felt would secure the right to vote. there was a lot of theme inside that there needs to be legislation. that it s not enough to remember what these marches did, what john lewis did, but there actually needs to be a renewed call for legislation in washington. do you agree with that? and do you think it s realistic to try to hope that would happen now? i think it s realistic to push for legislation. remember, there was a time when there was no legislation protecting our rights as human beings. and then we fought for it and it was something that we achieved. we had
that was the way, perhaps, that life was supposed to be before the movement would come because it was the life in which they were living before this movement would come. and when i really understood that dr. king and those courageous soldiers came here to change that. i was there listening to those speeches. my parents were at home because they were afraid to come out here and be a part of it because they could lose their lives. they could lose their jobs. and that is when i made up in my mind asked that 8-year-old girl that i was going to stand for them and in spite of their fear and stand up for what i believed in. and that s what i did. p. and what does it mean to you to be here 50 years later? standing on this spot at brown chapel ame? i am filled with mixed emotions as we have come to commemorate the 50th anniversary. it has really encouraged me particularly when i see
set the stage for what s happening there today. reporter: okay. thank you very much. yesterday, the focus was on president obama who, of course traveled here on the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday to give a really momentous speech that tried to distill the history, the racial history of this country that was so pivotally moved in selma 50 years ago and link that to today and 100 members of congress who came down saying they were hoping to galvanize their colleagues back in washington to renew the voting rights act. that was yesterday s set-up. today, the community of selma itself stages its commemoration. the star of today is actually the community here and the people who have traveled thousands of miles to come to this community and undertake the reenactment of that march themselves. this is the traditional ceremony that takes place annually here in selma, just a lot bigger. i m here at brown chapel ame, which, of course is the historic church where the original march in 1965 was