From Civil War to Civil Rights

Montgomery, AL

Today was an interesting day. I started out early from Vicksburg because I knew it would be a long day, not only because of the long drive, but because I knew I’d be stopping often. I crossed the full width of the state of Mississippi on Interstate 20, and crossed into a new state for both me and the trailer, Sweet Home, Alabama. The folks at the Visitor Greeting Centre just inside the state line were the most cheerful bunch, and really helpful. I continued my journey eastward on Highway 80 across Alabama before my day ended in Montgomery, the State Capital.

Although there is a huge amount of Civil War history surrounding Montgomery, (Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy as it’s first capital was here, for instance) today my focus was on Civil Rights rather than Civil War. I followed the 54 mile route from Selma, Alabama to the State Capital, Montgomery, Alabama that Civil Rights activists marched on March 21,1965, accompanied by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. They marched, I drove. Although I did walk over the famous Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The story of this march is told in the movie Selma, which was produced by Oprah, and she even had a small part in the movie. I stopped at the National Park Service Interpretive Centre in Selma for maps, etc and asked if the movie had been fairly accurate. The two women I talked to both thought it had been factual as far as what they showed other than they believed that MLK actually had a better relationship with President Johnson than was depicted in the movie. One of the women’s grandmother had been involved in the marches and she had heard all sorts of first hand accounts.

There is also a second interpretive centre about 30 km from Selma which has displays and an excellent documentary film on the events of the March from Selma to Montgomery, including a lot of first hand accounts of what it was like. It shows the long road before even getting to the 1965 marches, the months and months of work by groups working out of the churches in Selma (primarily the Brown Chapel AME and the First Baptist Church) by mostly youth organizations. (DCVL-Dallas County Voters League, SNCC -Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee and SCLC – Southern Christian Leadership Conference). It’s a huge centre and this afternoon when I was there it was me and one other family from Texas. To be fair, it’s not anywhere near the height of tourist season, and they did say the movie has dramatically raised consciousness about the events. In fact one woman said a man from Hungary made a special trip just to see it all, after seeing the movie.

The movie, Selma, focuses, for dramatic effect I suppose, on the events surrounding Bloody Sunday and the successful march to Montgomery on March 21, 1965. These events however, were the culmination of years of struggle for blacks trying to register to vote. While a few had been successful, many were turned down for non-legitimate reasons such as lack of education, etc. and any attempts to motivate people to register resulted in harassment by local authorities in Selma. The Sheriff in this story is not one of the good guys, and neither is the Governor.
On March 7, 1965 (Bloody Sunday) as hundreds of peaceful marchers came over the crest of the bridge they realized it would be wise to retreat after seeing the police presence on the other side of the bridge. Despite their retreat and peaceful acts, they were chased and beaten by the police, some on horseback while they were trying to make their way back to the church or their homes.
The final successful march was actually the third attempt. The second attempt, this time led by MLK, turned back after he led the marchers in kneeling in prayer rather than march headlong into the police presence. Some condemned MLK for not proceeding with the second march. I remember being confused by that decision in the movie, but the documents I read today say that MLK decided to turn back because the Governor had refused to sanction the march and instead of providing safety, the police were prepared for another Bloody Sunday and he didn’t want to take the innocent people into that situation. He also wanted to prove that the marchers would continue to protest peacefully. MLK subsequently pushed President Johnson to get the injunction against the march lifted and it finally was, allowing for the successful march on March 21.

Strategically, publicity surrounding Bloody Sunday and the second march that was being widely televised and monitored and which demonstrated the march was going to be peaceful, gave MLK the lever to get national and international attention for the cause. This attention drew all sorts of people to Selma to join in the march as it progressed over the 5 days it took to get to Montgomery, and what started as 4000 ended up as over 15,000 in the final march to the Capital. MLK gave his famous “How Long, Not Long” speech that day, which he wrote while in jail in Selma from a previous arrest for marching.

Finally in August, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act which suspended many of the barriers to registering that black voters has struggled with. The sad reality is that it’s really a rather hollow victory because while voters are now able to be registered, many of the youth, in particular, are not voting. In the last presidential elections less than 25% of black youth in Alabama voted.

As someone so involved in the democratic system my whole life, it was a moving day. This issue tugs at my heartstrings and I have to admit to some tears as I walked over the bridge today. I find it incredibly frustrating that there are those that are willing to make such sacrifices to ensure the ability for people to exercise such a fundamental right as voting, and yet not everyone exercises that right.

I’ve got some other great pics but am having major wifi issues this evening. I’ll add them later.