A New Selma

The recent opening of the major motion picture “Selma” has enabled a new generation to take a stroll back into history to one of the most significant events of the Civil Rights Movement in America.   It was Sunday, March 7, 1965, when nearly 600 hundred people began a fifty-four mile march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.  This event was a part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement and was planned to commemorate the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot just three week earlier by a state trooper while he was trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration.  

It was on this peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery in which the demonstrators were attached and brutally assaulted after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers and deputies.  What happen next was unbelievable and was caught by photographers and journalists as they were reporting on this event to the nation and the world.  That Sunday became known as “Bloody Sunday.”  Because of what occurred on that Sunday, more people came to Selma and joined the march.  Seeking judicial relief and help from the White House, day by day more pressure was building for intervention.  On March 17, the judge granted a restraining order that would allow the demonstrators to continue their march to Montgomery.   Over 2000 federalized National Guard, FBI and US Marshalls were assigned to provide protection for the demonstrators as they continued on their journey.  On March 25, 1965, well over 25,000 people stood before the state capitol in Montgomery, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking.      

As a director consequence of the events that occurred during this March to Selma, President Johnson was able to call the Congress back into session and passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, in which guarantees every American Twenty-one and over the right to register and vote.  And because of that and within four years the number of blacks eligible to vote rose from 23 to 61 percent. 

 

When you think about it, what started out as a simple demonstration and marching 54 miles by a group of about 600 people, turned into some far greater, more meaningful and became a lightning rod for the movement and helped to pass Landmark legislation.  This coming March will be the 50^th Anniversary of that historical march and boy has things changed in Selma, AL since then.  There is no problem crossing that bridge today!  We can all learn something from Selma.  What do you think?            

 Dr. Andrew Calhoun, can be contacted at andrewiiicalhoun@gmail.com, Twitter #AC53, and Facebook.   You can hear Dr. Calhoun each Sunday at Grace Fellowship Church, 3879 N. Port Washington Rd. Milwaukee 414-265-5546.