Civil rights icons to be honored at bridge jubilee
Selma Bridge crossing was a pivotal moment in the struggle for racial justice; 60th anniversary approaching.
DETROIT >> Bernard Lafayette Jr. was a young activist emerging from the 1961 sitins and Freedom Rides that fought for Black civil rights and an end to racial segregation when he received his next assignment.
It was one that would help change the course of American history.
“I looked on the blackboard and they had an ‘X’ through Selma,” Lafayette, now 80, recalled in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to the Alabama city that would become emblematic of the fight to secure Black voting rights and the 1965 marches that were a turning point in that struggle.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the youth civil rights arm, had sent two teams to scout out the city.
“Both teams came back and said ‘No, we’re not going to Selma,’” Lafayette said. “And they gave the same reason: ‘The white folks were too mean and the Black folks were too scared.”’
“But I was determined,” said Lafayette, who at 22 was painfully aware of the risk after being badly beaten by a white mob in Montgomery, Alabama, while taking part in Freedom Ride protests there against segregated bus terminals.
“I’ll go to Selma,” he recalled saying — words that would place him in the middle of the movement to register Black voters and eventually the 1965 Selma marches.
Sunday marks the 56th anniversary of those marches and “Bloody Sunday,” when more than 500 demonstrators gathered on March 7, 1965, to demand
the right to vote and cross Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were met by dozens of state troopers and many were severely beaten.
The attack, broadcast on national television, captured the attention of millions and became a symbol of the brutal racism Black Americans endured across the South. Two weeks later, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of civil rights protesters marched the 49 miles from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery — an event that prompted Congress to eventually pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Losses
This year’s Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee will be the first without the towering presence of civil rights icons Congressman John Lewis, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the Rev. C.T. Vivian and attorney Bruce Boynton,
who all died in 2020.
It will also be largely virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic, and comes at a time when the nation is still reckoning with the convergence of three crises that have disparately impacted Black Americans — the pandemic, its ensuing economic fallout and the racial injustice movement.
Organizers, activists and civil rights leaders say this year’s event, to be held Friday through Sunday, will honor the memory of civil rights legends and marchers and serve as a rallying cry and reminder that the fight for racial equity must continue.
“Our young people must continue the movement and you’ve got to keep moving in order to bring about that change,” Lafayette said.
This year’s theme, “Beyond the Bridge: People Power, Political Power, Economic Power,” will also
provide live workshops and training to help the next generation of organizers, said Drew Glover, the jubilee’s principal coordinator.
It will feature performances and events honoring civil rights legends and also the “foot soldiers,” whose names are lesser known. It will culminate in a virtual bridge crossing, featuring local and national leaders.
Old issues
“The issues that we’re dealing with today, with voter suppression, white supremacy, intimidation, the Capitol insurrection — these are all issues that our ancestors have been organizing for, for generations,” Glover said.
“We’re binding that connection between the struggles of 1965 and before, and where we are now in 2021, so that we can activate the next generation of people to pass that torch.”