40th Anniversary of the historical Selma-to-Montgomery Re-enactment March
The SCLC and others prepare to celebrate the upcoming
40th Anniversary of the historical Selma-to-Montgomery Re-enactment March
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) will once again join the National Voting Rights Museum, and Montgomery Friends of the Historic Trail this year for the commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Re-enactment March.
Activities will commence in Selma on
March 3, 2005 with Jubilee educational festivities to include marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on
March 6, 2005 in commemoration of "Bloody Sunday." SCLC, who has coordinated the reenactment of the march every fifth anniversary since the 20th anniversary, will begin the reenactment of the 54 mile trek from Selma to Montgomery with stop-overs at historical landmarks along the trail. From
March 7-11, 2005, people from around the country will reenact the 1965 march with stopovers at campsites in Selma, Lowndes County and Montgomery.
As marchers arrive in Montgomery, they will be welcomed on the grounds of St. Jude as those who marched before them in 1965 and will entertained by the likes of Sandy Patton and the Swiss Jazz Ensemble, George Washington Carver Elementary Choir, Alabama State University Gospel Choir, and Bobby Jackson, amongst others during the "Stars for Freedom Tribute."
All of the original1965 performers have been invited as honored guests, and local artists plan to play a tribute to the original musicians as they replicate the 1965 repertoire.
The First March from Selma - March 7, 1965
When 525 people started a planned march to demand fairness in voter registration from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday March 7, 1965, it was called a demonstration. When state troopers met the demonstrators at the edge of the city by the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the marchers were tear-gassed, clubbed, ridiculed, spat on, whipped, and trampled by horses. Television and newspapers carried pictures of the event that became known as "Bloody Sunday," and these images sickened and outraged people throughout the nation. Within 48 hours, demonstrations in support of the marchers were held in 80 cities, and many of the nation's religious leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., flew to Selma. After one more failed attempt, King led a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery on March 9, 1965 where thousands of people, representing many races and nationalities, moved before the eyes of the world in demonstration to guarantee the right to vote.
Then on Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time the marchers reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson responded to these events and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted--the best possible redress for the grievances caused by the horrific events of “Bloody Sunday.”
“We must never forget our past. There is nothing better than putting folks face-to-face with history,” says SCLC President Charles Steele, Jr. “To retrace the steps of Dr. King and other civil rights heroes is an experience that is far better than any lesson found between the pages of a book. Most importantly, this is an experience that is crucial for our youth to participate in for it offers them an opportunity to better understand the inspiring words of Dr. King as well as to get the opportunity to retrace the historical steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge themselves and walk the very same trail, which ran with blood on that fateful Sunday.”
Today, the March on Selma stands as a testament to the sacrifices made in the triumph to preserve the "right to vote" and a tribute to the thousands of people, from all nationalities and walks of life, who refused to turn back and step away from the opposition, but instead, preserved and brought about one of the most crucial enactments in American history, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Link:
http://sclcnational.org/net/content/item.aspx?s=21431.0.12.2607