Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL

Today, on the third Monday of January, we take a holiday to observe the life and legacy of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a fitting coincidence that today StoryCorps Griot arrives at Tuskegee University from Selma, Alabama; we travel from the site of one of the fiercest battles in the long struggle for the right to be counted as equal citizens to an institution established to develop responsible citizens who would make remarkable contributions to American life.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama was the site of one of the most significant protests in American history. The incident, known as “Bloody Sunday” emblazoned the Edmund Pettus Bridge as an indelible image of violent American oppression. Bloody Sunday sparked national attention on racial discrimination in voting, eventually leading to the passage of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On February 18, 1965 Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot to death by state troopers as he tried to protect his mother and grandmother from a vicious beating during an attack by State Troopers on a nonviolent civil rights demonstration. The demonstrators were attempting to walk half a block to the Perry County Jail in support of James Orange who was jailed for his voter registration activities. A StoryCorps Griot participant explained that sometimes it was good to keep watch over jailed brothers and sisters to make sure they made it to the morning alive. After the murder of Mr. Jackson, residents and local leaders attempted to bring attention to the civil and human rights violations taking place by marching 50 miles, along US Route 80 to the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. (42 years later, in May, 2007 the officer was finally indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson.)

Sunday, March 7, 1965 500+ marchers set out to Montgomery. Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge they were met by a blockade of State Troopers, the Dallas County Sheriffs department, and posse men. Some were mounted on horses, some on foot and some in cars. Reputedly, Sheriff Clark adorned his “NEVER” button, advertising his opposition to integration. In full view of national news media the law enforcement officers attacked the nonviolent marchers with tear gas, billie clubs, whips, and garden hoses with nails attached to the end. They beat the nonviolent demonstrators back across the bridge. Brutal images of the attack were broadcast across the country rousing a nation-wide outcry and renewed public support for the Civil Rights Movement.

In response to the attack Dr. King called for a Minister’s March urging clergy of every creed to come to Selma. Late that night he blasted a telegram to every corner of the nation declaring:

“No American is without responsibility, All are involved in the sorrow that rises from Selma to contaminate every crevice of our national life. The people of Selma will struggle on for the soul of the nation, but it is fitting that all Americans help to bear the burden. . . In this way all America will testify to the fact that the struggle in Selma is for the survival of Democracy everywhere in our land.”

Many of the participants who came to the space StoryCorps Griot created for people to share their stories remembered how they had been affected by Bloody Sunday and the entire period surrounding the turbulent drive for equal rights. One group of participants was Johnny L. Flowers and his 13 year old grandson, Johnny Flowers II. They spent the day of their StoryCorps Griot visit touring the march route and the Lowndes County Inteperative Center museum; a grandfather explaining to his grandson the turbulent transformation he was a part of. Johnny L. was grateful for the opportunity to record a conversation with his grandson. Lately, he said, they rarely have the opportunity to sit and talk. It was the first time the elder Flowers had a chance to tell young Johnny about his own grandfather, who had been a slave in the area.

Johnny II used his time with StoryCorps Griot to ask his grandfather about Bloody Sunday, segregation, and the right to vote. He asked his grandfather how he felt standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that afternoon:

Johnny II: ” When the first time ya tried to go over the bridge, what did you think about when they started beating the people, what was the first thing that came to your mind?”

Johnny L.: “Nonviolence was our motto, and Dr. King had taught nonviolence. And thats a tough thing, to be able to see someone beat up somebody and you don’t fight ‘em back. I’ll never forget that. It is tough, but we did not fight back, and that was tough, we were always tempted to fight . . . I was afraid. I guess I was too scared to run and too scared to do anything but walk.

We went to the church that night . . . tear gas was in our clothes so we couldn’t stay in the church ’cause the whole church was full of tear gas. They quarantined Selma, wouldn’t let anybody in, nor out. I couldn’t go home, I was stranded. Well, you can imagine what my momma and daddy thought about me being in Selma. They figured I was down in front so they imagined that i got hurt, so they cried practically the whole night. A guy – I don’t know who he is to this day – had mercy on us and he let [my brother] and I spend the night with him.”

As they closed their conversation Johnny L. asked his grandson, now that you have been here, seen the museum, learned about the Struggle firsthand, would you ever not vote. He replied “I will register to vote to have thanks for the rights that they died for.”

Can you call it democracy if any one member of society is denied the right to stand and be counted?

Mount Gilliard Missionary Baptist Church on US Route 80 in Lowndes County, AL

Last week StoryCorps Griot facilitators set out on historic US Route 80 traveling from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama. Along the way we stopped for two days at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center to set-up a space for Lowndes County residents to share their stories. The Interpretive Center opened in 2006 as the first of three sites established by the National Park Service (NPS) to commemorate, preserve and interpret the events, people, and route of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March of 1965. As stipulated in its mission, the purpose of this Historic Trail is to serve “as a reminder of the right and responsibility of all Americans to participate fully in the election process and the maintenance of vigilance in protecting the right to vote.”

Highway 80 between Montgomery and Selma is a picturesque swath of bucolic tranquility. However, Lowndes County had long been dubbed “Bloody Lowndes” due to a reign of feudal brutality. One participant told of a plantation owner who boasted about murdering a young man who worked on his land. He tossed the body, like a piece of game, on the boy’s mother’s porch because the young man had enlisted in the Army and looked too happy to be leaving the fields.

Although the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery, granted a form of citizenship, and the right to vote, respectively, many states did not recognize or respect the decisions of the federal government. These rights were swiftly snatched away by a Jim Crow system that denied African Americans their fundamental human and civil rights.

In 1965 15,000 residents, or 80% of Lowndes County, were Black, and not a single one was registered to vote. Intimidation, excessive poll taxes owed for every year of eligibility, and literacy tests that included questions like how many bubbles are on a bar of soap prevented potential voters from registering. A vast majority of the 15,000 African Americans in Lowndes County were sharecroppers. That meant they lived and worked on large plantations, some just as their enslaved ancestors had one or two generations earlier. In exchange for working the fields they were suppose to be paid for the crop they produced and picked. If they were even paid a fair wage, a careful system of credit at plantation stores, often the only place farmers were allowed to shop, kept them in debt, so year after year they owned more then they were paid. One participant remembered it being common for the plantation stores to allege you owned more then you did. And of course you could not argue with white owners. An elderly lady explained that even looking at a white man in the face could warrant a beating. Many plantation owners chose to pay their tenant farmers with “plantation coins,” special money that was only good at the plantation store. A hundred years after the passage of the 13th Amendment, Lowndes County was one of many strongholds throughout the country determined to control, through terror, a centuries old system of power.

Wright Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church on US Route 80 in Lowndes County

The participants who came to share their stories with the help of StoryCorps Griot had been born under this system and in the course of their life fought to obtain the right to vote and equal protection under the law. Much has been written by and about the prominent leaders and organizers of the human rights struggle known as the Civil Rights Movement. This movement was a true movement of the people. StoryCorps Griot is providing the foot soldiers – the everyday participants who made the movement possible – an opportunity to tell their stories.

One of these foot soldiers is Joseph Glover. Mr. Glover was 15 in 1965 when the movement towards equality in Lowndes County had gained forceful momentum. Mass meetings were secretly held on Sundays at churches around the county, like Mount Gilliard Missionary Baptist Church and Wright Chapel. Mr. Glover explained that people faced consequences as severe as death for participation in any activities considered subversive by the Klan or local sheriff department. He and his brother were determined to attend these meetings and any demonstrations.

In 1965-66 the Lowndes County Freedom Organization adopted a symbol of a stalking cat in opposition to the white-dominated County Democratic Party’s rooster emblem. The media described the symbol as a black panther. Under this symbol residents attempted to register to vote and place candidates on the ballot. White landowners retaliated by evicting sharecroppers who registered to vote, thought about registering to vote, or were linked to anyone thought to be involved in any voter rights activities. Local leaders and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worked to help get displaced families tents and other supplies to build a temporary “tent city” along US Route 80. The Lowndes County Interpretive Center now stands on the site.

Mr. Glover and his family were residents of tent city. He described the harsh conditions and imminent threat of violence that plagued the camp residents every hour of the camp’s two year existence. Mr. Glover was one of many young man who rotated sentry duties, guarding the camp from daily attacks. Candidly he remembered how almost daily the Klan and white landowners would empty round after round of rifle fire into the camp. With the help of SNCC and other local groups the Glover family was eventually able to find work and permanent housing.

StoryCorps Griot was proud to provide Mr. Glover and the residents of Lowndes County with a place to share their stories.

Thank you to Cathrine Light, Tina Smiley, and Cathrine Flowers for all your hard work organizing our stay at the Interpretive Center.