09/23/2021
With Eric Cox
Today we went to Selma, AL. The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. We spent almost 2 hours in this little museum dedicated to the people who marched from Selma to Montgomery, and those who were victims of Bloody Sunday. They’re called the Foot Soldiers. To say this is a somber place is an understatement. To read the accounts of people of all ages is incredible. Everyone knows MLK, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, and the other instrumental figures in the Civil Rights movement. But this place, it’s dedicated to the people who went back to the jobs, families, and schools after participating in the March, or helping clean up the campsites along the way, or bring food to the people marching. Though they’re not well known, they are just as important.
The man in the last picture is standing next to his picture. He was in 6th grade when the marches happened. He and his classmates went and cleaned up the campgrounds after the marchers left town, and on the last day when the marchers reached Montgomery, this group of classmates went to school long enough to be counted present, then took a bus to Montgomery to help clean up there. When they reached there, the Catholic Church that hosted the marchers had already cleaned up, so they were able to participate as marchers on the final leg. History in the making.
Highly recommended.
