Several Minnesotans joined President Barack Obama and others who traveled to Selma, Alabama Saturday to march across the bridge where protesters were beaten exactly 50 years ago, the Star Tribune reported.

Several of the Minnesotans from the Living Spirit United Methodist Church in South Minneapolis had marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in what became known as “Bloody Sunday,” said Living Spirit pastor the Rev. Donna Dempewolf, according to the Star Tribune.

About 70,000 people came together on the bridge to commemorate the march in Selma, Reuters reported.

Rep. John Lewis, D-GA., who led the march 50 years ago also joined the march, USA Today reported.

Obama spoke to the marchers about current racial and political disputes, like the ones in Ferguson, Mo., and asked to renew the Voting Rights Act, which was spurred by the 1965 marches in Selma, USA Today reported. He also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to those who held demonstrations to help pass the act, according to USA Today.

“Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished, but we are getting closer,” Obama said to a crowd in front of the bridge, according to USA Today.