CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a Cleveland Democrat and former Ohio secretary of state and U.S. representative, has announced that he will give remarks at several events during this year’s Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee on Sunday, March 3, 2019 in Selma, Alabama.

The Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee is a commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” which occurred March 7, 1965, when nearly 600 civil rights activists, led by the late Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr., were brutally attacked by angry White cops while marching from Selma to Montgomery on the Edmond Pettus Bridge.

The protest was a peaceful protest seeking voting and other constitutional rights for Black people.

Rep. John Lewis, a Black Atlanta Democrat, and then a young and politically ambitious Civil Rights advocate, was as among those who marched with Dr. King in Selma on "Bloody Sunday more than 50-years-ago.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, federal legislation that prohibits racial discrimination in voting,  followed and was signed into law by then president Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 6, 1965.

A seasoned member of congress, Brown has made multiple pilgrimages to Selma with his family and congressional delegations to commemorate "Bloody Sunday."

“The brave women and men who marched from Selma to Montgomery 54 years ago risked their lives to demand full and equal participation in our democracy,” said Brown. “As we see the deliberate dismantling of voting rights all across the country today, it’s more important than ever that we honor those foot soldiers and continue to stand up for the rights they sacrificed so much for.”

Though he has yet to officially announce a run for president in 2020,  Brown has not denounced the idea.

He made the cover of Time Magazine this month, among a crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Barack Obama, the nation's first and only Black president, spoke at Selma anniversary events in 2015 when he was president, and in 2007, when he was a junior senator from Illinois contemplating a run for president. And he marched with protesters across the Edmond Pettus Bridge that Sunday in 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historical march that changed history.

Brown will give remarks during the Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast, one of several events as part of the 54th Anniversary Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

He will also deliver remarks Sunday at the historic Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, which served as the focal point where Dr. King and other activists organized the Selma-to-Montgomery marches and voter registrations.

In addition to members of congress, others expected to attend the anniversary events, which began this weekend and concludes on Sunday, include Martin Luther King III, and his younger sister, the Rev Bernice King, a host of presidential candidates, Civil Rights leaders, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, a Democrat who lost a bid for president in 2016 to current president Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and former television personality who will not be in attendance.

Finally, Brown will speak at the foot of the Edmond Pettus Bridge, where Congressman Lewis (GA-05) and other non-violent protesters were brutally attacked while fighting for the right to vote.

Brown attended the first year of the annual congressional pilgrimage in 1998 and keeps the photo of him marching through Selma in his office.

In 2015, the Faith and Politics Institute organized the Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Selma during the 50^th Anniversary Commemoration of Bloody Sunday.

The events were chaired by Congressman Lewis, and Brown co-led the pilgrimage with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).

The 2015 event had more than 90 other lawmakers in attendance and included visits to Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, and Marion.