Remembering Some History - Selma & The Right To Vote

A few weeks ago I received an invite from Anna Suranyi, a History Professor at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. The purpose was to give a talk about my experiences in Selma, Al. back in 1965. 

A few years back I had given a similar talk to another one of Professor Suranyi’s class but in that case it was a live, in-person event. This time would be different. Due to the pandemic, the plan this time would be to do the presentation via Zoom. I had my original slide show and I felt good about doing something like this again. For the past year, like so many of you, I’ve been pretty much quarantined in my house. Of course it’s not just the pandemic. My current health status and the need for supplemental oxygen have restricted my mobility.

Of course there were other reasons to do this. February is Black History Month and it seemed both fitting and important to be able to offer something like this to students during that period. We’re also just a few weeks away from the 56th Annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee that will be held on March 5-7th. This will be the first year in recent memory without John Lewis, the civil rights icon and leader of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in ‘65. The reenactment is another victim of the pandemic and will be held virtually this year. Information on the event can be found at Selma Jubilee. So like I said, plenty of good reasons to agree to the invite.

On Feb. 18th, 2021, I logged onto Zoom and spent a little over an hour showing my slides, sharing experiences and telling stories about that time so long ago. I’ve written a lot about Selma over the years and I’m also in the process of putting a number of other personal historical documents together for posterity, so I didn’t really need much preparation. But of course, nerves are nerves so there were a few hours of wondering if I really could do justice to the topic and to the students. My goal was to not come across as an old man from the 60’s (which of course I am) talking about how great everything was and how we changed the world back then (which we didn’t). I wanted these young people to know that I was basically like them at that point in time. I was 21, trying to figure out who I was, where I fit in and how I could make a difference. I was growing, learning and experimenting with ideas, politics and personal values. I was in that state of rebellion that parents know so well. In my taIk, i also wanted to verbalize my frustration about what I thought had been accomplished in that moment in history and where we are now.

I wanted the students to relate the struggle to obtain the right to vote in the south in 1965 to the movement toward voter suppression that we have today. Here we are in 2021 with the Voting Rights Act virtually gutted, while there are at least 165 bills in state legislatures putting more restrictions on people’s ability to vote, especially people of color. Wrap tour head around that. None of us can feel cocky or complacent with that reality. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act’s passage is imperative along with the For The People Act. Both of these need to be a priority for Congress and our country. 

In the end, I think the presentation went well. There was clearly interest and the students made all the connections themselves. Time for a few questions and comments at the end that made me realize that we have to share oral and written history all the time so people can put their own times in context.