GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — This Sunday will be the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday — a day police attacked Black protesters marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.

There will be marches in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo this weekend to commemorate the event and fight for present-day voting protection.

“We definitely would encourage you to come out and support as we continue to fight for voting rights here in our state and across the country,” said Kareem Scales, administrative operator for the Greater Grand Rapids Branch of the NACCP.

This is the first time that the Greater Grand Rapids Branch will participate in this national commemoration. The march will start at 1:30 p.m. off Campau Avenue NW.

In 1965, the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma paved the way for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On Sunday, marchers in West Michigan hope Congress will soon pass new voting and election reform legislation like the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

“Now is the time that we continue to express the importance of civic engagement and making sure that we advocate for strengthening voting rights and not restricting them,” Scales said.

Galilee Baptist Church in Kalamazoo will partner with other churches and organizations to host a march. Participants will gather at the intersection of Riverview Drive and Paterson Street.

They will march to the Douglass Community Association building at 1000 W. Patterson St.

You can watch the march in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids simultaneously on the Greater Grand Rapids Branch NAACP’s Facebook page.