Fritz and I went to Selma, Alabama earlier this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. In honor of Rosa Parks death, I will post some pictures from our trip.
Pictured above is the Edmund Pettis Bridge where marchers, who supported granting full voting rights to african-americans, were halted and beaten by Alabama State Troopers and local Sheriff deputies on March 7, 1965. On March 9, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. journeyed to Selma and enacted a symbolic march to the bridge in remembrance of Bloody Sunday. Two weeks later a larger gathering would complete the march from Selma to Montgomery begun by the 600 initial marchers.
It didn't take Hurricane Katrina to get me to understand the vast poverty of the South. This Employment Center is in the heart of the "old town" area of Selma, right next to the river (just next to the Edmund Pettis Bridge)
Jimmy Lee Jackson's murder was one of the events that led to the march across Edmund Pettis Bridge. Think the South is a joyful land free of racism? See those red-stained holes? Those are from bullets.
This is a statue inside the St. James Hotel in Selma. The hotel is a pretty nice place in the heart of old town.
The exterior of the St. James Hotel.
The view across the street from the St. James Hotel.
Right after Fritz and I crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge we saw this remnant of a strip mall. A little further down the road was a former movie theater. We asked around and eventually found out the nearest movie theater was 50 miles from Selma.
This is the Alabama River at dusk. As you can see this is beautiful country, but it is plagued with poverty.
[I have about 100 more pictures, but that should give you an idea of what Selma is like.]
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