March To Montgomery: The Bloody Sunday of Selma
By Malin Martin
The Start
In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Zion’s Chapel Methodist Church with members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference near Selma, Alabama. With the goal of bringing attention to voting discrimination and encourage voting participation.
Who is Jimmie Lee Jackson?
Born 1938, Jimmie Lee Jackson attempted at registering to vote and was unsuccessful due to the systemic discrimination in Alabama. Jackson decided to visit MLK’s church meetings and became a frequent visitor as they pushed him to protest for his rights.
February 18th, the inspired Jackson was participating in another peaceful protest for voting rights. Although he was unarmed and peacefully protesting, he was beaten and shot by a state trooper. He died 8 days later in the hospital on February 26th.
Jackson’s death enraged the community and many protesters and activists joined together and marched in his honor including King and other spiritual leaders. They left Selma and marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery.
March 7, 1964 became known as “Bloody Sunday” due to the brutal and deadly beatings the protesters had to endure. The event successfully brought attention to the issues and inspired others to continue fighting for the encouragement to continue to exercise the right to vote.
Jackson’s murderer, James Fowler, was finally charged in 2008. He was sentenced to 6 months and unfortunately was released a month early after only serving 5.
Peace and Justice Memorial Center
The Peace and Justice Memorial Center was opened in April of 2018. Across from the center is the Peace and Justice Memorial Garden. Past the garden are pillars and statutes of slaves and memorials.
On each pillar are the names and counties of victims of racial terror lynching along with other torture and killing methods. Sadly, many names are unknown and lost in history. Many stories and lives burnt and tossed like the carcasses of their soulless forms.
Inscribed on the walls of the memorial are words:
“FOR THE HANGED AND BEATEN.
FOR THE SHOT, DROWNED, AND BURNED. FOR THE TORTURED, TORMENTED, AND TERRORIZED. FOR THOSE ABANDONED BY THE RULE OF LAW.
WE WILL REMEMBER.
WITH HOPE BECAUSE HOPELESSNESS IS THE ENEMY OF JUSTICE. WITH COURAGE BECAUSE PEACE REQUIRES BRAVERY. WITH PERSISTENCE BECAUSE JUSTICE IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE. WITH FAITH BECAUSE WE SHALL OVERCOME.”
Although the true numbers will never be known, and it’s impossible to get every lost soul accounted for, all the lives lost are honored and remembered.
