Commemorating Bloody Sunday Anniversary

Sisters Pat Flass, Elaine Englert and Kathy Navarra in Selma, AL

This March marks the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attacks on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama. Activities were held the weekend of March 3 to commemorate the anniversary. Sisters Kathy Navarra and Pat Flass, who are missioned in Selma, took part in the remembrance activities. Sister Elaine Englert, who was visiting from Rochester, joined them and took pictures along the way. 

“The experience of participating in the 59th Anniversary of the Civil Rights March and Bloody Sunday has filled me with awe, inspiration and gratitude for the men and women who fought - willing to be beaten and die - for freedom from racism and for the right to vote in their own country," says Sister Elaine. "I felt especially connected as a Sister of Saint Joseph of Rochester that our Congregation has been present and serving in Selma for 84 years.”

Our Sisters who were missioned in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 were called to extraordinary service at Good Samaritan Hospital when they cared for the civil rights marchers who were beaten by state troopers while trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.