Skeptics could say this year’s version of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee lacked the firepower of previous or future years.

A quick glance over the list of civil rights leaders and government officials in attendance might lead the outsider to imagine this was just another Jubilee and just another march.

Those who hold that mindset could not be more wrong.

I know this was my first Jubilee, but I saw nothing routine in the day’s events. It was a day I will never forget, and a day I feel honored to have witnessed first hand.

From the moment I sat down in Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church an hour before Sunday’s service began, I knew this day was special.

Sitting down next to Wilson Blount, who on March 7, 1965 had ridden a bus from Tuskegee College with other students in the hopes they could join a peaceful march to show support for equal voting rights for all people.

Being able to speak with someone who watched with his own eyes as the old world of hatred, bigotry and ignorance tried in vain to stay in power was something I will never forget.

Being able to sit in the balcony of Brown Chapel and hear the words of Rep. John Lewis who walked in to the cloud of tear gas and billy clubs on Bloody Sunday and still stands today was something I will never forget.

Seeing the hundreds gathered outside Brown Chapel with signs and banners drawing attention to important issues of our time was something I will never forget.

Driving from Brown Chapel to downtown I was keenly aware of how important this day is, was and always will be.

I stood at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and watched a sea of humanity gather strength as it moved along Alabama Avenue and Broad Street, and when that wave came crashing over the bridge I was amazed not only by the number and diversity of people I saw, but by the look in their eyes that I will never forget.

It was a look Sunday’s marchers shared with those of 50 years ago. It was a look that told of not of struggles, challenges and doubt, but rather this look revealed determination and resolve.

It is a look that changed the world in 1965, and it was a look that can change the world again.

Martin wasn’t technically there Sunday, and Jimmie Lee can’t be seen in any photographs of the event. Amelia was there, limited as she is in a wheelchair.

But they were all there. The spirits and the visions of Martin, Jimmie Lee and so many more were up front, joining Amelia, Rep. Lewis and F.D. Reese as they made their annual sojourn.

Last year, the Jubilee was host to the country’s vice president, and next year, on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the list of honored guests will be historic, but for me the 2014 Jubilee was all I could ask for and then some.