On this day, the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, I’m wondering if our society is where he envisioned it would be a half a century after he made the ultimate sacrifice for equal rights.
On March 7, 1965, 600 activists decided to call attention to the civil rights movement by marching from Selma to Montgomery. On that “Bloody Sunday,” they made it six blocks to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police officers attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas, pushing them back into Selma. Two days later, Dr. Martin Luther King led a successful march across the bridge. After receiving court protection, demonstrators peacefully marched across the bridge March 21 and arrived in Montgomery four days later—25,000 strong. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 five months later.
You would think that the city that was ground zero for the civil rights movement would be light years ahead of the country in terms of education equality. Not so. My daughter is conducting research at several schools in Selma, Alabama, in a joint partnership between Auburn University and Tuskegee University. She said the schools are “literally falling down around the students. The teachers don’t have desk chairs or chalk. The students have outdated books and lack basic school supplies. The doors in the bathroom stalls don’t have locks, and there’s no hot water, toilet paper or soap. It’s like walking into a time warp. It’s just wrong.”
God bless my sweet daughter, who has been buying school supplies with her small assistantship salary and taking them to the students. If you’re interested in equal rights in education, I recommend you contact Selma City Schools. They need your help.