Dignitaries Speak Out About Selma
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The pre-March rally that was originally scheduled at the foot of the Edmund Pettus bridge didn’t exactly happen because of the thousands of people who were already walking the bridge.
There were lots of national and local dignitaries in the crowd — all the ones I spoke with say they were moved by the outpouring support that Selma received this Bloody Sunday — but there’s still much work left to do.
They came from all around the world. Even a group from Namibia in Africa.
More than 60-thousand people. All to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Just as 600 martyrs did March 7, 1965.
For civil rights activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson, though… He says “Selma, continues to need help”
“Houses now in great disrepair… Condemned. People who live on that street who don’t have running water in their house and toilets in their back yard. I mean poverty. We can do better than that as a nation.” says Rev. Jesse Jackson.
And it’s poverty that’s a concern for Dallas county district attorney Michael Jackson… who wonder’s what’s next for Selma after Bloody Sunday? With the city’s poverty level at 40 percent, he says jobs are a necessity.
Michael Jackson, Dallas co DA says “We need to have employment where when young people go off to college they’ll stay here. They’ll keep a growing middle class.”
Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford says another concern is the future of the voting rights act…
“We must make sure that section 4 of the voting rights act is put back in. We must make sure that the voting rights act and that law protects the rights of all American citizens. In particular minorities and african americans and others. And so we’ve only just begun.”
The Selma events aren’t over yet. A group of people will be leaving the bridge at 8 o’clock Monday morning.
