One Week Until Montgomery Hosts March Reenactment
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We are one week away from Montgomery’s leg of the Selma to Montgomery march.
And event organizers are working around the clock to make sure everything goes according to plan.
Anita Archie has been coordinating events for the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March for months.
“Getting to all those fine details that I never thought I would get into but just want to make sure that we have a good footing when they come here on the 25th.”
And she still has her hands full. Wednesday afternoon she hosted a meeting for the parents of children who are part of the Dream Marches On Educational Tour. The kids will be a part of next week’s festivities.
“We have a meeting with parents to answer certain questions, give out bags, t-shirts, and just let them know that their child is going to be safe with us for the week.”
“It’s a part of history,” says 13-year-old Byron Mason, who will be marching next week. “We just had to 50th anniversary in Selma and I want to be a part of history.”
The Montgomery portion of the historic trail has been completely renovated. The roads have been repaved, trees have been planted, there are new street signs, and commemorative banners hang over the walls of abandoned buildings. Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange says about eight million dollars has been to clean up the trail.
“We started a year and a half ago to get the trail where can we be proud of that.”
Strange says the city is expecting thousands of people, but not the crowd that Selma had.
“We don’t have the president here,” he says. “It’s not on a Saturday or Sunday. It is a Wednesday and so we don’t really know what the expectation is.”
Still, Strange tells us security will be ready for whatever. About 40 outside agencies will help assist Montgomery Police. And security cameras have been set up along the trail. City leaders are hoping for a successful event.
” I think the biggest challenge is right now, that we want to encourage everybody to come out and participate in the commemorative march,” says Archie.
About 100 thousand dollars of that 8 million spent actually came from city funds. The rest is federal money or money raised from fundraising.
