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SELMA, AL – Sixty years have passed since a group of peaceful protesters were severely beaten after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge here.

Sabrina Turner Tann wasn’t among those marching that day in an effort to gain the right to vote, but she found it important to return 60 years later to remember those, to include her uncle, that changed the course of history on March 7, 1965.

Tann, an Alabama native now living in Northampton County, was part of a group representing Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. that traveled to Selma to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the Selma-to-Montgomery March, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One week earlier, Tann, a member of Franklin Tri-County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., was in her hometown of Marion, Alabama to join with other members of her family as the Post Office there was officially named as the Albert Turner Sr. Post Office.

“I was a student in college when my Uncle Albert, my dad’s brother, spoke from the steps of Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma during the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery March,” Turner said. “He spoke well and represented well for civil rights, serving as the Alabama field secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) from 1965 to 1972.”

Tann said her uncle helped organize voting registration drives and other civil rights activities, including the Selma to Montgomery march.

“For his leadership, he spoke about how Black activists often referred to my uncle as Martin Luther King Jr.’s point man in the Black Belt region,” Tann recalled. “He remained an active voice promoting racial and civil equality in Perry County until his death at age 64.”

Tann added that many in the Turner family have continued the legacy of Albert Turner as government officials in Alabama and surrounding areas.

Albert Turner was among those protesters who were tear gassed and beaten on Bloody Sunday. The images from that horrific event shocked the nation and galvanized support for the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Tann moved from Alabama after graduating from the University of Alabama, as her brother-in-law came to the Southampton County, VA area to preach. Tann went to work with the Department of Corrections and that’s where she met her husband. They married and moved to Northampton County 35 years ago. She retired in March 2024.