This weekend - March 2 - March 3, 2013, the Faith and Politics Institute is sponsoring and leading their Congressional Pilgrimage to civil rights historical sites in Alabama, culminating in participation in the reenactment of the bridge crossing in Selma, Alabama. Ironically, this week, Justice Scalia referred to voting rights as the perpetuation of racial entitlements. At the same time he admitted that the constitution protects everyone's right to vote. It's sad that he doesn't seem to understand the historical significance of people being not only beaten, but killed in Selma advocating for this basic right to vote.
Congressman John Lewis is leading the Pilgrimage this weekend and you can get updates through the Faith and Politics Institute's Twitter account at Faith & Politics
@FaithNPolitics. Congressman Lewis and the Institute use this as an opportunity to bring Senators and Congressman together in a bipartisan manner with other citizens to share in the expierience and the history of the civil rights movement and to promote civility among diverse groups. Something Congress can certainly use at this time.
I have said it before. John Lewis is a true hero. Someone who continues to believe in and fight for non violence and non violent solutions. A committed troublemaker in the best sense.
Several years my wife and I took our youngest sons to Selma to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge ourselves and visit the site of Jonathan Daniels' murder in nearby Haynesville, Alabama.
ReplyDeleteMy predecessor, Father Stivers, went to Selma for the national march that followed that awful day.
Jonathan was an Episcopal seminarian from Keene, New Hampshire, in Haynesville to register Black voters. He was murdered across the street from the County Courthouse on the steps of a local store - shielding a young Black woman from a shotgun's blast. Jonathan was 5 years of me as a seminarian from the Diocese of New Hampshire.
missing word: ahead of me as a ....
DeleteSmall world. I rented Fr. Stivers house many years ago. Neither of us knew that we were probably in Selma at the same time. Thanks for sharing the information.
ReplyDeleteJW