Today if you see a group carrying a casket through town, it is not because just one person died. It is a symbol for the thousands of lives that have been lost to violence.

On Saturday, The Safe Haven Center will host the Stop the Violence Rally from noon until 3 p.m. The rally will kick-off on the steps of the A.M.E. Chapel Church and continue to the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“We start in a line and we actually use a hearse and a casket,” Rev. Michael Bowen Sr. of The Safe Haven Center said. “And then we have our children behind us and our T-shirts that say, ‘I’m my brother’s keeper, not my brother’s killer.’”

The rally goes through downtown in the line formation and then ends at the foot of the Edmund Pettus, Bowen said. There, they will have speakers and ministers speak out against violence.

“This is not a political event, it’s not a political stage for someone to come with their platform. This is violence awareness,” Bowen said.

The special guest speaker will be Silky Slim, author and filmmaker of Live and Die Amerikkka, Baton Rouge.

The rally is presented by The Safe Haven Center in partnership with Youth Against Violence from Birmingham, Stop The Violence — Enough is Enough from Montgomery and The Corvette Club from Birmingham.

Other organizations, like the Wings of Eagles, a motorcycle club from Camden, will also be there to help support the cause.

“We believe the more we come together as a city it will put a damper on violence,” Bowen said. “We could make it much harder for people in Selma to commit violent crime by having awareness and having community leaders in place.”