The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015 - (Page 13)

racIal JusTIce Selma, 50 Years Later: A Memoir & Some Reflections by Bob Tiller I n a few weeks the US will mark the 50th anniversary of a major watershed in our Civil Rights movement: a series of events now known simply as Selma. I will sketch a brief summary of what transpired, identify some ways it impacted the movement and draw some learnings for today. Selma, a county-seat town, became a focal point of voter registration efforts in the early 1960s because only a small percentage of eligible African Americans in that county were registered. White voters controlled all aspects of local government because county officials continually erected barriers to prevent African Americans from registering: requiring highly subjective literacy tests, setting extremely limited registration hours, imposing a tiny maximum number of new registrations permitted each week and sometimes employing physical intimidation against registration applicants. After a lengthy campaign for new registrations found only intransigence and massive resistance, Civil Rights leaders proposed a 50-mile march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery, to call attention to the problem and to press for constructive change. (This was about 18 months after the famous March on Washington, and about nine months after the murder of three Civil Rights workers in neighboring Mississippi.) The openly racist governor of Alabama refused to approve the march along a state highway, citing safety concerns, and clearly hoping that the Civil Rights organizations would lose interest and move on to challenge discrimination in other states. But the Civil Rights leaders decided to march anyway. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, they set out from Selma on a protest march that was clearly nonviolent, but also clearly an act of civil disobedience. Just outside town, the marchers came to a phalanx of police, state troopers and newly-deputized local vigilantes blocking the road. Seeing their route blocked, the marchers knelt to pray. Almost immediately, the police threw tear gas canisters at them and waded in with heavy truncheons, beating everyone in sight. Scores of people were injured, including John Lewis, then the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and now a US Representative from Georgia. Amazingly, no one was killed, though several were hospitalized. Millions of US Americans watched the bloody beatings of nonviolent marchers on national television news that evening, and they also watched a televised plea from march organizers for people of goodwill to come to Selma and swell the ranks of the marchers. In homes across the US, men and women considered that plea and decided to heed it. "The next day, my wife and I were on a train from Chicago to Alabama. We had no idea what challenges and dangers we would face there, or even where we would stay, but we trusted that God's Spirit was leading us to make this response." The next day, my wife and I were on a train from Chicago to Alabama. We had no idea what challenges and dangers we would face there, or even where we would stay, but we trusted that God's Spirit was leading us to make this response. Upon arrival in Selma, we were buoyed to find hundreds of other like-minded people pouring into town from every region of the country. These were ordinary folks of all races who felt moved to support both the march for fair voter registration practices in Selma and also the broad push for an end to racial discrimination in the US. We met local black residents from Selma, as well as Civil Rights leaders who daily risked their lives in the struggle. We ended up staying for three days and nights. Local black families, including several living in a public housing project, opened up their homes for visitors, and we gratefully stayed with them. Given the history of both legal and extra-legal discrimination, it was a courageous thing for local people to house "outside agitators," as white officials routinely labeled those who came from elsewhere to support Civil Rights. Likewise, local black families provided copious amounts of food for our meals. Most of the eating was done inside Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the gathering point each day, or out on the church steps. (Some who came to Selma from elsewhere decided to patronize local restaurants, flouting the danger posed by menacing (see "Selma" on page 16) JAN-MAR 2015 Baptist Peacemaker 13

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015

No Longer Strangers: The BPFNA’s New Strategic Plan
A Reflection On Our Convictions & Motivation
Board Welcomes Kadia Edwards as Young Adult Representative
Baptists, Others Respond to Ebola Crisis
Gimme Shelter: My Vocation as a Peacemaker
Kidnapping of Students Leads to Outrage in Mexico
Parting Thoughts
With the Beating of Our Hearts: Bearing Witness to Other’s Pain
Dispatches from Ferguson: A Two-Part Account of a Week in St. Louis
The Gospel Is Not a Neutral Term: Excerpts from an Interview with Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Seko
Selma, 50 Years Later: A Memoir
Imaging, Journeying & Standing before One Creation, Part 1: Who Shaped My Image of Creation?
BPFNA Receives Grant for Justice Work on the US/Mexico Border
Central African Republic Rebel Groups Train for Peace
The Global Influence of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Resources & Opportunities
Keep It Real

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015