Should be ashamed

On March 9, 1965, I traveled with seminary friends to Selma, Ala., to march in support of voting rights for African American citizens. Dr. King had called for ministers from around the country to join a march on the Tuesday following “Bloody Sunday” where police and others brutally attacked peaceful demonstrators.

We met at the Brown Chapel church in Selma where we learned how to respond to cattle prods, attack dogs, men on horseback, and police with clubs as we prepared for the march. As we headed toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the white crowds along our route shouted insults telling us to “go back to where we came from.” Our visit to promote justice was attacked because we were “outsiders.”

This is the common attack when people seek change that would lead to justice.

In 1965, a group of white ministers in Birmingham, Ala., when confronted with demonstrations by African Americans seeking racial justice, noted, “We are confronted by a series of demonstrations … led by outsiders.”

I strongly suggest that Arkansas’ U.S. House members should read a copy of Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” where King responds to these white ministers, and also notes they have called him an “outsider.”

Trump uses the very same language that has been used by racists for decades when he tells four duly elected members of Congress to go back where they came from. Each Arkansas member—Crawford, Hill, Westerman and Womack—should apologize to your constituents for your support of Trump’s use of this historic racist language.

I believe we no longer have a Republican Party, but rather a group of Trumpeter sycophants. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

JACK SINGLETON

North Little Rock