An Anniversary - 55 Years After Selma

This weekend, many people will be remembering and celebrating what has become known as 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma, Alabama. Yes, 55 years since a young John Lewis along with 200 other marchers were beaten back by local police and a posse of men with horses, clubs, baseball bats and tear gas. People were brutalized as a nation watched on TV. These folks were marching for something very basic, the right to vote. Thousands of people heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s plea for support from people in the north and from all over the country to come to Selma to assist in standing up to the injustice that was being witnessed. Men and women of faith, students and just plain good people showed up in the following days in solidarity with King, Lewis and the people of Selma.  Today, we all face new threats against the right to vote in this country. Instead of making it easier, people are trying to make it more difficult to register and to cast a ballot. I have placed four links below that will take you to a four part series on this history. These are my personal account of the events in Selma. They have been published here in the past but deserve a retelling on this 55th anniversary. This is not nostalgia. This is history and a reminder that we must all be vigilant at a time when our country has moved to a place that we may have thought was gone forever.

Part 1 - Selma, Alabama

Part 2 - Selma, Alabama

Part 3 - Selma, Alabama

Part 4 - Selma, Alabama