On March 7, 1965, several hundred civil rights protesters embarked on a planned march from Selma, Alabama to the state's capital, Montgomery. The march was intended to protest the recent murder of a Civil Rights worker and draw attention to the ongoing disenfranchisement of Southern African Americans. However, the day became known as "Bloody Sunday" due to the violence that the marchers encountered on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, just outside of Selma, Alabama.
A decade later, Selma-born photographer William Anderson documented a commemorative march that marked the tenth anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Lewis were among the participants. (Both can be seen wearing light-colored jackets in the front row.) The presence of a photographer in the foreground signals the event's significance and recalls the importance of photography in the Civil Rights movement.
In an acknowledgement of the continuing work required to live up to the principles of the nation, Anderson titled the photograph "The Struggle Goes On."
