March 7th, 1965 was a Sunday, and when police attacked a peaceful group marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama it became known as  “Bloody Sunday.”  That was fifty years ago today and the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York has assembled a remarkable retrospective by three contemporary photographers: Spider Martin, Charles Moore and James Barker.  An excellent web view can be found on the CBS News site.

This, I believe, is really one of those instances when the images truly speak for themselves and tell the whole story without words.  The public attention raised by these images at the time led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 19654.. The irony however, remains tat we are still a half century later conflicted by race and we may reflect on what Martin Luther King said on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery on March 25, 1965. Twenty five thousand people marched to the capitol to hear the speech.

“The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. … I know you are asking today, How long will it take? I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long.”