Senator: Selma wants $23,000 for Bridge Crossing services

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Organizers of an annual civil rights celebration are joining with Civil War re-enactors in criticizing Selma for asking for thousands of dollars to cover police and other services during the events that draw large crowds to the small Alabama city.

State Sen. Hank Sanders, who founded Selma’s annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee, said Wednesday that the city is demanding more than $23,000 for police and city services for the annual event. He criticized the request as an attempt to end an event that commemorates the fight for voting rights - or to put it under city control.

“We will not pay to march in Selma. We have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble,” Sanders, D-Selma, said at a news conference. “Selma is a symbol all over the world for the right to march.”

The annual event is a commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march and is scheduled for the first week of March. Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site of the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in which demonstrators were beaten by law enforcement officers.

Selma Mayor Darrio Melton said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the city can no longer afford to subsidize the event. He said the city loses more money than is generated by tourist spending.

“It is not in our budget,” Melton said Wednesday.

Melton said the actual city cost for the event was more than $35,000, but the city agreed after discussions to reduce the cost.

Melton said the request for payment only includes the events that occur in the days before a Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the culmination of the weeklong celebration.

This is the second Selma tourism event hit with a similar city demand.

Organizers of the Battle of Selma Civil War re-enactment canceled this year’s event after the city sought $22,000 for city services. Organizers told The Selma Times-Journal earlier this month that they were disappointed in the city’s decision. They have started a GoFundMe page to raise money to support the reenactment in 2018.