By Christopher Young
Contributing Writer,
Merriam-Webster says a pilgrimage is a journey of a pilgrim, especially one to a shrine or sacred place. And so it was Sunday, March 3, 2024, as thousands gathered on this hallowed ground – the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Fifty-nine years removed from the horror of the day known as Bloody Sunday when 600 non-violent demonstrators began the freedom march from Selma to Montgomery, a fifty-four mile stretch of road, simply seeking the right to vote in Alabama. They were terrorized by white Alabama state troopers. Ninety-seven years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the black foot soldiers were viciously attacked by white law – recorded and then televised around the globe.
On March 7, 2020, Congressman John R. Lewis, posted on Twitter, now known as X, “55 years ago today, we were beaten, tear gassed and trampled by horses. I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die. I don’t know how I made it back, but I know we cannot rest. We cannot become weary. We must keep pushing and pulling and find a way to get in the way.” He died four months after this post.
Ten weeks after the vicious attacks on the bridge, “the bridge in 1940 was named after Pettus, a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader,” per NBC News, “the voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote May 26, 1965. After debating the bill for more than a month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 333-85 July 9. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony,” per Smithsonian.com.
Lewis, whose skull was broken on March 7, 1965, was co-founder and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at the time, per numerous sources. Among the group alongside Lewis that day was Dr. R.L. Patterson, pastor in his 47th year at Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church in Birmingham, and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Birmingham Chapter) who graciously shared with The Mississippi Link newspaper. “I’m 80 years old. I was one of the first marchers. I come here every year with my family. It’s a little hard with my age, but I’m coming anyway until the end.” When asked, with white supremacy at a fevered pitch in our country right now, what are we going to do, what can we do – is that the way you see it? He replied, “That’s the way I see it. The things that have happened over the years have changed. Instead of us fighting for democracy, we’re turning against ourselves. Our young people don’t feel what we feel, they haven’t gone through nothing. They were born into the reality of the day that we struggle, and that’s why we have a lot of this going on. We’re still not able to vote and do that right. We’re living in difficult times, but we as old people, we’re still fighting, and we’re gonna fight to the end.”
When asked what could bring about a groundswell of change in beliefs and attitudes – do you ever think about things like that? He shared, “Last week we started Mass Meetings again and were gonna do that every month from now on. Our strategy is to be on the streets, the sheriff is going to be with us for protection, we’re going from door-to-door. This problem belongs to us all. We’ve got to stand up to what’s going on. I have dedicated my life. We work out here in the streets and in the prisons trying to save men. We are a people of God.”
Among the many speakers at what is known as the largest annual civil rights commemoration event in the country, were Deputy Secretary of US Department of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small, President and CEO of SCLC Charles Steele, Jr., Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tanya Bradsher, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, US Representative for the Alabama 7th District Terri Sewell, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
After being introduced by Azali Fortier, youth member of Selma Jubilee and sixteen-year-old English major at Spelman College, Vice President Harris began speaking about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and provided great detail about the atrocities. She “called for the immediate cease-fire for at least a six-week period so that aid can be provided. The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. They must open new border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid. They must ensure humanitarian personnel convoys are not targeted, and they must work to provide basic services in Gaza so that more food, water and fuel can reach those in need.”
Turning her focus to Selma, comments included: “The story of Selma is a story of our nation. Freedom is fundamental to the promise of America. Freedom is not to be given, it is not to be bestowed, it is ours by right. The power behind the promise of freedom has always been in the fate of her people and our willingness to fight for freedom. Our fight for freedom is not over because in this moment we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought hard-won freedoms. Starting with the freedom that unlocks all others – the freedom to vote. The sacred freedom to vote. Today in states across our nation, extremists pass laws to ban drop-boxes, prohibit early voting, and restrict absentee ballots. Whatever happened to love thy neighbor? The hypocrisy abounds. President Biden and I will continue to demand that the United States Congress pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
Tragedy. Triumph. The bridge where new bridges are forged. Hallowed ground. Never forgotten.
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