Selma to Montgomery

The men and women who took up the 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama on March 21, 1965 knew they were risking their lives. They understood that they might not make it back home. They saw with their own eyes what happened to protesters in two earlier marches.

On March 7, 1965, the first Selma to Montgomery march ended in violence when State Troopers on horseback with whips, nightsticks, and tear gas charged 600 unarmed protesters after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The troopers drove the protesters back to Selma and left a large number of them bloodied and injured. The brutal scene was captured by television cameras and became known as Bloody Sunday.

A second march took place two days later but was cut short by a temporary injunction by the federal court against further marches. The march was delayed but the tears kept coming. That night, KKK members murdered civil rights activist and minister James Reeb, who had marched that day. His murder remains unsolved.

The protesters stood their ground though. They had come together to protest Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised millions of African Americans across the South. They were also protesting the death of civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was gunned down by a state trooper.

And so, they set out on the third march unsure of what to expect. After walking 12 hours each day and sleeping in fields along the way, they reached Montgomery on March 25, 1965. Nearly 50,000 supporters — black and white — met the marchers. They gathered at the capitol to hear Martin Luther King Jr. and to rally to their cause.

The Selma to Montgomery marches brought national attention to the issue of voting rights and helped pave the way for the passage later that summer of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act banned literacy tests as a requirement for voting. It mandated federal oversight of voter registration in areas where tests had previously been used. It also gave the U.S. attorney general the duty of challenging the use of poll taxes for state and local elections.

Sixty years have passed since the Selma to Montgomery March. Sixty years long years.

Oh, much has changed in that time. And yet, much hasn’t changed. The fight for justice and fairness continues. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are dirty words now for some politicians and companies. Instead of evening the playing field for all, they try to separate us and keep us fighting.

There’s much I don’t understand about people. I just know that I couldn’t let the day pass without marking its significance to our shared history and reflect on where we’re need to go into the future.

Most important, I wanted to express my gratitude to the brave folks who showed us that a 54-mile journey begins by taking the first step.

And another step, and another step.