Starting Our Day
Before checking out of the hotel, we searched the internet and learned that the Selma Interpretive Center was closed due to lack of staffing.
And so, before we ventured forth, we watched a powerful National Parks video of events surrounding “Bloody Sunday.” Filmed on location in Selma and Marion, Alabama, it featured interviews with people who were actually involved on that day … most of them teenagers in March of 1965.
It was terrible but that was another day I was proud to be part of.
~John Suttles
A little over 22 minutes long, I felt inspired hearing these courageous people share their experience. I encourage you to watch it at this link.
Linda’s Memories
In 1965, I was in my first year of teaching at Port Clinton High School. Today, 58 years later, not much is seared in my memory about what I knew at the time about the historic events taking place in Selma, Alabama.
I do remember travelling to New York over spring break to visit my high school and college friend, Carolyn, who was teaching in Rye. I was a big Sammy Davis, Jr. fan, so Carolyn purchased tickets for us to see him in “Golden Boy” on Broadway. We arrived to a darkened theater on Wednesday, March 24.
We stood in the lobby waiting when I absentmindedly read a sign over the box office window. Carolyn exclaimed, “What did you just say?”
I reread the sign, paying attention to the message this time. “The performance is cancelled for tonight. Sammy Davis, Jr. is marching in Selma, Alabama.”
Sammy was among a number of celebrities who joined marchers at the City of St. Jude, a Catholic Social Services complex near the state house. Harry Belafonte, who marched all the way from Brown Chapel in Selma to Montgomery, organized a “Stars for Freedom Rally” a make-shift concert in support of the marchers.
I am embarrassed to admit, my major concern at the time was missing the opportunity to see Sammy on Broadway. I was relieved we were able to get tickets for the Friday night performance. The next day I began my trek back to Ohio.
Diana’s Memories
Diana was a young mother caring for two beautiful babies, a 3-year-old daughter and a 23-month-old son.
As we shared our memories, we remembered not liking the oppression of black people we saw being addressed on the news. We supported The Voting Rights Act then. And we continue to support Voting Rights. In our day, they are under assault again.
For the most part, however, our day-to-day lives in 1965 were untouched by these so-called “political disturbances.”
Brown Chapel AME Church — Our First Stop
This historic church is under renovation, so we weren’t able to go inside. We read every plaque and monument inscription on the property, engrossed in these momentous moments in history.
Just as we were ready to move on, a tour bus pulled up and everyone gathered on the steps. I happily agreed to take their picture.
Then one of the men in the group went over to the Civil Rights Freedom Wall and pointed to his name. Sam Walker was 11 years old when he participated in Bloody Sunday and the march from Selma to Montgomery. He served as the tour guide for the group. Currently he works for The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. What a thrill to meet him. One of the most meaningful moments on the trip.
Interpretive Center Bookstore
It had begun to rain and we were pleased to find the bookstore attached to the Interpretive Center open. It was located across the street from the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
We viewed the display of a white election official asking black citizens to name the number of jelly beans in a jar or the number of bubbles in a bar of soap as access to their right to vote. I felt disgusted. We picked up fliers and copies of literacy tests used in Alabama and Louisiana with questions most citizens then and today would find difficult to answer. And yet fearful whites used these questions to block black citizens from exercising their constitutional right to vote.
While there, we purchased the three-volume set of John Lewis’s graphic novel, March.
Edmund Pettus Bridge
The rain had slowed to a drizzle and we were eager to take this historic walk across this infamous bridge. We walked in silence, imagining the courage of those mostly young people who knew they would be met on the other side with so-called officers of the law wearing gas masks, swinging night sticks and cattle prods, snarling police dogs, fire hoses mowing them down, police on horseback knocking them to the ground. They maintained their non-violent stance as they were driven all the way back to Brown Chapel. Such commitment and dedication to the precepts upon which this nation was founded!
Civil Rights Memorial Park
On the other side and under and next to the bridge we found the Civil Rights Memorial Park.
We walked the trail, saddened by the disrepair.
Across the street stood the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute … where Sam Walker works.
Moved by all we witnessed, we continued our tour in awe of the dedication and courage of these people who stayed the course and changed a nation.
And then, we were ready to continue our journey, holding all we had seen in our hearts, aware of the poverty of words to describe the thoughts and feelings stirred by these momentous events … grateful that fear of the evolution of culture is not among them.
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