Tyler group travels to Selma for historic event
Published 11:49 am Monday, March 9, 2015
SELMA, Ala. — On the road to Selma, Alabama, 21-year-old Chelsea Anderson, of Tyler, wiped tears from her eyes as she watched scenes from the motion picture “Selma” on a charter bus. The movie chronicled Alabama state troopers’ violent response to protesters marching across Edmund Pettus Bridge on their way to Montgomery to urge voting rights for all citizens.
Ms. Anderson was among the 40 East Texans who ventured to Selma to take part in the 50th anniversary of the event, called Bloody Sunday, which left dozens of marchers hospitalized. President Barack Obama, 100 members of Congress, marchers from that fateful day, including Rep. John Lewis and other dignitaries highlighted what organizers called the Selma Jubilee.
Ms. Anderson joined the bus trip after her grandparents asked her to go. She said she wanted to have a deeper sense of history.
“I didn’t want to miss a trip like this,” she said. “I think it’s very inspiring to be around a lot of people at a time like this.”
Returning from the trip, she was happy to have had the experience.
“I’m glad I came,” she said. “I had so much fun.”
Blondell Hill, 68, of Longview, also didn’t want to miss the historic event.
“In ’65 I was finishing high school,” he said. “In ’65, we were just getting TV, so I didn’t know a lot about it at the time.”
Hill said recent police-related shootings and today’s political discourse underscores the importance of what the Selma marchers did 50 years ago.
“I feel like there’s been a lot of change, but yes, there needs to be a lot more change,” he said. “I think we’re kind of losing a little now.”
Gladys Brown, 67, of Arlington, agreed. She got on the bus because she feels passionate about the right to vote.
“I didn’t go to the marches in Selma, but I marched in other places,” Ms. Brown said. “I just have a real problem with gerrymandering and we thought that the vote was secure. That we would have one person, one vote and that our vote would count and it doesn’t so much.”
She believes that the disenfranchised and the poor are still fighting barriers to voting.
“I think what’s significant about it is, 50 years later, we’re still fightin, in many instances, the same battles, and yet, we do have a right to vote,” Ms. Brown said. “They’ve just figured out another way to kind of take it away from us.”
It was a point Obama made in his speech Saturday, telling the crowd,
“Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march isn’t finished.”
THE PILGRIMAGE
The Tyler group’s more than eight-hour trek to Selma was a journey also taken by thousands across the country. Once there, a never-ending line of cars and charter buses were gridlocked near downtown Selma. People squeezed in for a chance to get closer to see Obama, who made his speech at the bottom of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. A majority of the crowd wrapped around a block. Most of the Tyler group viewed his speech via a monitor at a church courtyard.
Sir Isaac Nelson, 20, a student at Tyler Junior College, clapped emphatically as the president’s speech highlighted race relations in America and the need to preserve the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nelson said he traveled to Selma for the experience that connected an older generation of protesters with those of today.
“I wanted to experience what our civil rights leaders have fought for, and I wanted to experience being on the bridge,” he said.
Dr. Shirley McKellar, army veteran and community leader, organized the trip. After seeing that several buses would be leaving from Dallas, she wanted to ensure Tyler residents had an opportunity to go to Selma as well.
She said she was not surprised that Obama was more open about race issues than he has been before, including mentioning Ferguson in the wake of a critical Department of Justice report on that city’ police department, released last week.
She also pointed out the purpose of the event — ensuring the right to vote and keeping that right for generations to come.
“The blood, the sweat, the tears, going to prison, that’s all in vain if we don’t all get out and exercise our right to vote,” she said.
