The National Park Service is holding a special ceremony Monday to recognize Marion and the impact that the city had on the 1965 voting rights movement.

Many think of voting rights martyr Jimmy Lee Jackson’s death on Feb. 26, 1965, as the spark that led to the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Jackson was participating in a peaceful protest in Marion when Marion city police, sheriff’s deputies and Alabama State Troopers attacked the marchers.

In an effort to save his mother and grandfather, the 26 year-old was shot twice in the stomach by trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson died within days at a hospital in Selma.

To honor Jackson’s sacrifice and the city of Marion, the National Park Service will have a dedication of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail extension from U.S. Highway 80 West and Dallas County Road 45 to Marion, to be known as the Marion to Selma Connecting Trail.

The ceremony will take place at the Zion United Methodist Church, located at 3087 Pickens St. in Marion at 10 a.m.

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, Marion Mayor Anthony Long, Commissioner Ron Miller and Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. will be in attendance for the service.

Jarvis will also visit the Frank. M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Montgomery where he will designate that building and three historic Federal courthouses as National Historic Landmarks in recognition of the sites with the civil rights movement.