This Sunday, there will be a reenactment of the “Bloody Sunday” bridge crossing in Selma, Alabama – and a corresponding reenactment in Frankfort, Kentucky.
The Kentucky Selma Commemoration Coalition is sponsoring the reenactment in Frankfort to coincide with the event in Selma, memorializing the 55th anniversary of this critical moment in the civil rights movement, and to promote and expand voting throughout Kentucky.
The march in Frankfort begins at 2 PM at Main Street and Capital Avenue, with the lineup starting at 12:30 PM.
On March 7, 1965, in Selma, state troopers attacked several hundred marchers in their attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin a voting rights protest march to Montgomery, the state capital. The troopers indiscriminately assaulted the crowd with night sticks, clubs and whips, causing injuries and ending in many arrests.
Images of the police beatings and assaults with tear gas against the marchers flashed across television screens nationwide, capturing what is now called “Bloody Sunday.”
This 55th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march celebrates not only “Bloody Sunday,” but a series of peaceful protests carried out against often extreme violence that resulted in one of the most momentous pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history — the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In the past, the impediments to voting ranged from poll taxes to intimidation of all kinds, even death. Even now, methods of voter suppression persist. However, there is clearly a need for action to encourage an engaged, knowledgeable, and consistently active voter. The health of our democracy depends on it, and the decision making that effects your life demands participation.
This commemoration is aimed at promoting and expanding voting. It is planned as an annual event to be held on the first Sunday of every March so that organizations, the faith community, and individuals can sound a clarion call for all to exercise the right to vote.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Why commemorate the Selma bridge crossing on ‘Bloody Sunday’? Because the right to vote is precious and hard-won, and we must continue to push for voting rights and expanded voting. #BloodySunday #VotingRightsMatter” quote=”Why commemorate the Selma bridge crossing on ‘Bloody Sunday’? Because the right to vote is precious and hard-won, and we must continue to push for voting rights and expanded voting. #BloodySunday #VotingRightsMatter”]
The history behind the march
The push for voting rights sparked the Selma march
Before the march, civil rights groups had been pushing for equal voting rights. As an example, a 1961 Civil Rights Commission report revealed that less than 1 percent of the voting-age African American population was registered in Montgomery County.
As a result, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) began holding “Freedom Days” in the capital that were focused on canvassing door-to-door to persuade African Americans to register to vote.
The Ku Klux Klan and local police often fought against efforts to register black voters in Alabama and other southern states. According to The New York Times, Jim Clark, the sheriff in Selma, once sent a photographer to take pictures of activists who participated in a 1963 “Freedom Day.” Clark warned them that he would share the photos with their bosses.
In a letter written to the Times in February 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: “This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.” A little over a month later, the march from Selma to Montgomery took place.
Jimmie Lee Jackson: The inspiration for the march
One of the first images that comes to mind when Selma is mentioned is likely Dr. King marching hand-in-hand with dozens of civil rights advocates. Less well-known is Jimmie Lee Jackson — the man whose death set the demonstrations in motion.
Dr. King spoke at Jackson’s funeral. In the summer of 1965, Dr. King gave a speech in Syracuse, N.Y., where he mentioned Jackson’s death. “Before the victory’s won, some like a Medgar Evers, like a Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, like a Rev. James Reeb, like a Jimmie Lee Jackson, may have to face physical death. … (if) the physical death is a price that some must pay to free their children and their white brothers from an eternal death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive,” King said, according to a transcript.
The state trooper who shot Jackson, James Bonard Fowler, was charged with murder in 2007, 42 years later, the Associated Press reported. Fowler pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and was freed early from a six-month jail sentence.
The bridge the marchers crossed was named after a KKK Grand Dragon
Pettus, whose family had owned slaves before the war, was regarded as a hero by Alabama whites during and after the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, according to the Smithsonian Institution.
The march was a catalyst for the Voting Rights Act, and inspired movements elsewhere
Five months after the march to Montgomery, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The act protected African Americans’ right to vote, ostensibly granted in 1870 by the 15th Amendment.
The Kentucky Selma Commemoration Coalition
The following organizations are part of the coalition sponsoring the Kentucky commemoration:
- State conference of the NAACP
- Louisville Chapter of NAACP
- Lexington Chapter of NAACP
- Richmond Chapter of NAACP
- Paducah Chapter of NAACP
- General Association of Baptists
- Central District of Baptists
- Together Frankfort
- The Peoples’ Campaign
- League of Women Voters
- Poor Peoples’ Campaign
- Teamsters National Black Caucus
- Kentucky State AFL-CIO
- ACLU of Kentucky
- Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA)
- American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
- United Food and Commercial Workers
- (and growing)
For more information on this Sunday’s event, contact any of the above organizations, or Senator Gerald Neal at Gerald.Neal@lrc.ky.gov or (502) 564-8100, x807. If you call, ask for Annette Poole-Malone.
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Written by the Kentucky Selma Commemoration Coalition. Cross-posted from the KY AFL-CIO web site.