DAY 7: MONTGOMERY TO SELMA
This is a day I had been eagerly awaiting waiting; the opportunity to retrace the route of the history-defining March For Voting Rights of 1965.
There's a lot of history behind this, but I'll attempt to be concise. Since the Civil War, Alabama, along with most other Southern states, made it almost impossible for Blacks to "qualify" to register to vote. Even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 asserted the right of everyone to vote, it seemed impossible to prohibit states from erecting unreasonable barriers. But people were persistent, among them Amelia Boynton Robinson.
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| Monument honoring Amelia Boynton Robinson and Marie Foster for their leadership in the Selma March. |
Some citizens of Selma peacefully protested this unjust situation, only to be brutalized by police. On February 26, 1965 in nearby Marion, a young unarmed military veteran, Jimmy Lee Jackson, was fatally shot by a former Alabama State Trooper as s result of protesting. At this point, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) and the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (led by John Lewis) became involved and planned a March from Selma to the State Capital in Montgomery.
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| Memorial to the late Congressman and Selma March leader John Lewis. |
On March 7, Reverend Hosea Williams and Jon Lewis led 600 marchers from Brown Chapel to the Edmund Pettis Bridge over the Alabama River is Selma.
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| Edmund Pettis Bridge, site of Bloody Sunday. |
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| Brown Chapel, where the Selma Marches began. |
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| Hosea Williams was the leader of the March on Bloody Sunday. |
The peaceful group was met by police and State troopers in riot gear, on horseback, armed with tear gas and batons, along with a mob of whites with chains and clubs wrapped with barbed wire. When Reverend Williams respectfully asked to speak to those in charge, he was rebuffed and the troopers attacked, brutally beating the marchers, running over some of them with horses. This was caught be news film crews and televised, shocking the nation. This day became known as "Bloody Sunday."
After two weeks of court battles, the five-day march began on March 21, this time the march would include 25,000 people! It was a huge logistical operation coordinated by volunteers of all races and supported by celebrities such as Harry Bellefonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., Shelly Winters and others.
They spent the night camping on farms such as the Rosie Steele Farm. Each of the stops are now marked along the way.
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| Each of the four campsites used by the marchers are marked on the trail. |
About 4 miles outside of Montgomery, the group stayed at the City of St. Jude and organized for the final journey to the heart of Alabama power.
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| The final campsite before marching to the State Capitol in Montgomery. |
On March 25, the crowd marched to the steps on the Capital building.
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| Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke from these steps on the Alabama State Capitol Building in Montgomery at the finale of the 54 mile march. |
The result was that the Voting Rights Bill was signed just a few months later, on August 6, 1965.
Besides Jimmy Lee Jackson, two others lost their lives as a result of extremist violence. James Reeb, a white minister from Boston, was attacked and murdered by a gang of white men prior to the beginning of the march. At the end of the march, Viola Liuzzo, a white mother of 5 who had come to support the march, was assassinated by the Klu Klux Klan.
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| At Brown Chapel, this monument recognizes those who lost their lives in this march, both black and white participants. |
While the history was fascinating and uplifting, the bike riding was a bit brutal. As a result of the storm, temperatures dropped into the low 50s, and we faced a 20 mile-per-hour headwind for the entire 56 miles. On a few occasions we had a decent shoulder to ride on, but most of the time we were sharing the lanes with trucks going 65+ miles an hour. Not really safe for cyclists, and though I'm glad I had the opportunity to ride this historic stretch, I wouldn't recommend anyone do it on a bicycle. Just sayin'.
Today's Mileage: 56.0
Total Distance to date: 250
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