FILE – In this March 7, 1965, file photo, a state trooper swings a billy club at John Lewis, right foreground, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/File) The Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast in Selma is one of the few in-person events to mark the…
FILE – Then-Vice President Joe Biden, center, leads a group across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., Sunday, March 3, 2013. From left: Selma Mayor George Evans, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Rev. Jesse Jackson, Biden, Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) Today is the 56th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, when…
Photo of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma – Photo from Office of U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) is remembering Bloody Sunday, which took place in Selma on March 7, 1965. She has released this statement: “Today, we commemorate the 56th Anniversary of…
The City of Selma will honor a prominent civil rights figure by naming a day in his memory. The Selma City Council has voted to declare that March 15, from now on, will be “F.D. Reese Day” in the city. Fredrick Douglas Reese was 88 when he died in 2018. He had been part of the “Courageous Eight” who played…
Alabama News Network is sad to report the death of longtime civil rights supporter Jeannie Graetz. She and her husband Rev. Robert Graetz were among the few white people who openly supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Mrs. Graetz died at her home in Montgomery this morning at the age of 90. She had recently been diagnosed with lung…
Mount Zion A.M.E Zion Church is one step closer to curating the next Civil Rights attraction in Montgomery. Officials have announced that the church has received a $500,000 grant to restore the Mount Zion A.M.E. Zion Church Memorial Annex. The award represents the second $500K grant the group has received. Plans are in the works to restore the church, built…
The memorial service for the late Reverend Robert Graetz, Jr. Was held Sunday. He’s remembered as a Civil Rights icon and acclaimed human rights advocate. The memorial service for Rev. Graetz was held at Montgomery’s Historic First Baptist Brick-A-Day Church. The church was an important gathering place for activities related to the Civil Rights Movement, and it became associated with…
John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in Selma in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died on Friday, July 17. He was 80. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him “one of the greatest heroes of American history.”…
Alabama News Network has spoken to Rosa Tyner, the youngest sister of U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), who died Friday at the age of 80. Lewis, who was a native of Troy, was severely beaten on Bloody Sunday in Selma in 1965 and leaves a legacy of fighting for civil rights. “I prayed to God for him to spare him,…
Civil rights icon the Rev. Joseph Lowery delivers the keynote address at Clark Atlanta University’s fall convocation Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, in Atlanta. Lowery urged young people to vote at the event where a voter registration march was planned but canceled because of the weather. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Nationally-known civil rights leader Rev. Joseph E. Lowery has died at the…
