SOS (Save OurSelves Movement for Justice and Democracy) announced plans to march all the way from Selma to Montgomery on the 50th Anniversary of the world famous 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March that helped bring about the landmark Voting Rights Act. State and national leaders, including representatives from SOS and SCLC, held a news conference Wednesday, October 15th, at 11:15 a.m. on the 3rd floor of the Alabama State House to announce plans for the upcoming march re-enactment.
Charles Steele, National President of SCLC, the organization that organized and led the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March, said, “No single act of Congress brought more democracy to America than the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It changed America by including the left out. Without the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the events that preceded it, there would be no Voting Rights Act.”
The re-enactment will commence on Sunday, March 8 and conclude on Friday, March 13, 2015. It will commence at the end of the annual Bloody Sunday March and the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. SCLC, and leaders of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and the National Voting Rights Museum have sponsored the full march from Selma to Montgomery every five years since the 1970s and sometimes in between.
Hank Sanders, Alabama State Senator said, “The march will be a celebration, but it must also be a call to struggle. Voting rights are under the most severe attacks since the 1950s and 60s. We must protect and expand voting rights as we celebrate.”
Representative Alvin Holmes, who co-chaired the Selma to Montgomery March in 2012 said, “The March started in Selma but ended in Montgomery. Montgomery must be a key part of the re-enactment of the Selma-to-Montgomery March on the 50th Anniversary.”
Representative John Knight said, “The 50th Anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March is a great time for all of us that have benefitted from the Voting Rights Act to come together in celebration and recommitment. The struggle for voting rights is not over but continues on all fronts.”
Representative Thad McClammy said, “We will work together with others to make this the most successful Selma-to-Montgomery March Re-enactment of all times. The original march was successful because so many leaders and organizations worked together. We must work together.”
Dr. Joe Reed said, “We must do everything in our power to protect voting rights that are under relentless attack. The Selma-to-Montgomery March is one way to advance the continuing fight for voting rights as we celebrate.”
Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford said, “The March is big enough to include everybody. No one is excluded and everyone is invited. Voting rights protect us all and we all have to protect voting rights.”
