GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-five years after a violent clash between civil rights marchers and police in Selma, Alabama, President Clinton went to Selma today to mark the occasion. CNN's Aram Roston is there as well -- Aram.</s>ARAM ROSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gene, President Clinton is the first U.S. president to ever visit Selma, Alabama. Thousands of people packed the streets here to see him speak and to commemorate "Bloody Sunday." President Clinton said that Bloody Sunday, that day 35 years ago, was so important it even changed his life.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For I, too, am a son of the South, the old segregated South. And those of you who marched 35 years ago set me free too on Bloody Sunday.</s>ROSTON: President Clinton visited the National Voting Rights Museum here, and later arm in arm with some longtime civil rights leaders, he marched across the bridge. In that march 35 years ago, 600 civil rights marchers tried to cross the bridge. They were brutally turned back by state police and by sheriff's deputies. Shortly after that day, Martin Luther King led another march. That was also turned back but without violence. In a third march that same year, marchers were protected by federal troops. Today here in Selma, in spite of the serious tone of this occasion, there was also a festive atmosphere as people celebrated their history. Aram Roston, CNN, Selma, Alabama.
President Clinton Pays Tribute to the Marchers of `Bloody Sunday'