Would You Have Marched from Selma to Montgomery?

Four and a half decades ago, there was no federal holiday to mark Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. At that time, 1964-65, some viewed King as “an agitator” trying to fix something that was not broken. Still others saw in King a leader who could mobilize masses, who spoke the plain truth about segregation and the need for voting rights, too long ignored, particularly in the South.
As I thought about the man who will be honored next Monday for bringing civil rights to the forefront in America’s mind in the 1960s, I remembered the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. And asked myself, “Would you have marched those 54 miles with King?” Does the right to vote, and thus decide important issues, mean so much to me that I would have placed myself in harm’s way to help all people, regardless of race, gain that precious right?
I ask that same question of you. Would you have been brave enough to march from Selma to Montgomery?
Let us revert to March 7, 1965 to a place many New Jersey residents had never previously heard about, Selma, Ala.
African Americans still did not possess the right to vote, as did whites in that and other quaint Southern towns, where racism and segregation were ingrained in society.
The march began at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma and crossed the Edmond Pettus Bridge.
At that time, those non-violent marchers were, according to National Park Service history, “tear-gassed, beaten, and their processional stopped by law enforcement officers.”
Reporters and photographers captured what might have been forgotten in prior years down there, and soon, the world witnessed that attack. Many became incensed.
Soon, that episode was dubbed, “Bloody Sunday.” Selma instantly became a household word, and thousands converged there, and began the Selma to Montgomery march on March 21, 1965.
Would you have joined that march?
On March 25, King delivered one of his more notable speeches, not as famous as “I Have a Dream,” but a stirring address. It is entitled, “Our God Is Marching On.”
He spoke of the 8,000 who began on a Sunday “on a mighty walk.”
That trek across Alabama would be roughly the equivalent of walking from Court House to north of Vineland.
Would you have joined that march?
“We walked though desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. We have been drenched by the rains. Our bodies are tired and our feet are somewhat sore,” said King.
He then told of “Sister Pollard” a 70-year-old Negro who lived “in this community during the (Montgomery) bus boycott.” One day while walking because of that boycott, Pollard was asked if she would like a ride. “No,” Pollard replied. “Well, aren’t you tired?” she was asked.
“And with her ungrammatical profundity, she said, ‘My feets is tired, but my soul is rested,” said King. “And in a real sense this afternoon, we can say that our feet are tired, but our souls are rested,” he added.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 “gave Negroes some part of their rightful dignity,” he said, “But without the vote, it was dignity without strength.” Does the right to select government officials mean that much to you?
Again, would you have joined that long march?
“I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now,” said King.
Of that march, and the ends which it sought, King said, “From Montgomery to Birmingham, from Birmingham to Selma, from Selma back to Montgomery, a trail wound in a circle long and often bloody, yet it has become a highway up from darkness.”
The entire campaign, King told the crowd, was “centered around the right to vote.”
By so doing, the marchers focused the “attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the Southland. Racial segregation as a way of life did not come about as a natural result of hatred between the races immediately after the Civil War. There were no laws segregating the races then.”
He then cited “a political stratagem employed by the emerging Bourbon interest in the South to keep the southern masses divided and southern labor the cheapest in the land.”
“Yes, we are on the move and no wave of racism can stop us,” King said. “The burning of our churches will not deter us. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. We are on the move now…Like an idea whose time has some; not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.”
Later he urged, “Let us march on poverty until no American parent has to skip a meal so that their children may eat. March on poverty until no starved man walks the streets of our cities and towns in search of jobs that do not exist…Let us march on ballot boxes, march on ballot boxes until race-baiters disappear from the political arena.”
“The road ahead is not altogether a smooth one. There are no broad highways that lead us easily and inevitably to quick solutions. But we must keep going.”
“As a result of this historic event, the Voting Rights Act was passed on May 26, 1965,” states the NPS history.
Would you have marched for the rights of everyone to vote? Once you gained that precious right, would you sit home on Election Day and let someone else make decisions?
Dr. King would be interested in hearing the answers. Spend some time Jan. 18 pondering the questions.