CLEARWATER, Fla. — More than 800 high school students took part in a unity walk Tuesday in Clearwater.
- Clearwater High students took part in unity march Tuesday
- Students walked across Memorial Causeway Bridge just after 11 a.m.
- Walk ended at Coachman Park
The Clearwater High students walked across the Memorial Causeway Bridge to recognize and celebrate those that have stood for equality and human rights.
After a meeting, breakfast and special presentation at the school, students headed to the bridge for the unity walk. The event has been months in the planning.
"The activities we’re doing will bring people together people who normally wouldn’t meet they’re going to be friends," said student Carly May.
The walk ended at Coachman Park where students participated in more events before taking buses back to school.
The special keynote speaker, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, was the youngest person to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965 during what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
Lowery, then 15, was one of about 600 civil rights marchers walking from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights when state and local lawmen blocked the march. The resulting violence resulted in multiple injuries to the marchers and stopped the walk, which was restarted two days later and completed three weeks later.
"I’m not going to be in the steps of MLK (Martin Luther King)," said student Oluwada Milare Oguneye. "I’m not MLK at all but just to know that MLK was a young guy and me being even younger at 16 years old, me doing that, with other students in the county. It’s going to bring a lot of pride."