MARCH ‘65
It seems almost unbelievable;
it has been 50 years since I took my first jet flight, San Francisco to
Atlanta.
A half a dozen of us, civil rights workers affiliated
with various ecumenical groups, ministers, part-time students, and laymen. We responded
immediately to the ‘bloody Sunday’ incident in Selma, Alabama.
From Atlanta we took a
shuttle flight into Birmingham. Greeted by Charles Evers, brother of slain
Medger Evers, and then bussed to Selma. That same morning, accompanied by others
nation wide we walked to the Edmund-Pettus bridge, with Dr. Martin Luther King,
and the good citizens of Selma.
It was the second march over
the bridge since that Sunday. Stopped by state, county and local police
authorities. There was no violence, excepting the racist jeers of white locals.
As we marched together, locking hands with each other, I was surprisingly not
scared. Maybe it was being between the Black youth of Selma. When we reached
the bridge end we were stopped by the white authorities who gave out a loud
order to cease our marching.
Dr. King and the March leaders
chose not to proceed. As I recall,
everyone sat down. Denying everyone the right to continue marching. The
authorities ordered the group to turn back to the Black community; as if we had
been trespassing.
By that time the whole nation was aware of the
attempt to again cross the Bridge and continue marching to Birmingham in the
attempt to register Black Alabama citizens their civil right to vote.
You will have to forgive me,
as some of the sequences of what happened then are still vague in my memory
after half-a-century.
Returning to the Black
community, the March leaders met the remainder of that day until sometime after
noon. We had learned that sometime in the next few days there had been plans to
federalize the state militia. Rumors that President Johnson and the U.S.
Department of Justice were engaged.
The rallying area in the
Black segregation of Selma was across from a red brick federal housing project.
I felt very much at home with the residents who welcomed us with open arms.
Ironically at that time we
were living in a housing project, Hunters Point, San Francisco. Being one of
the few non-Black families living there. Having moved from Berkeley where I was
engaged in civil rights activities while a part-time student. I had come as mainly a community organizer and
continuing civil right activist. Working
with various ecumenical churches in the City; including Episcopal, Methodist,
Unitarian, Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist congregations.
It was through those
organizations that led the group of us to fly to Alabama in response to Dr.
King’s call subsequent to the ‘bloody Sunday’ march.
Unfortunately not all of us
could stay in Selma. Outside of the Black community we were absolutely not
welcome. One of our group, a seminarian, Unitarian, was killed. We knew that it
was not safe to remain.
Before I left though, I
mailed appeals to my friends, parents and relatives in support our little
organization, Christians for Social Action and the cause of civil rights for
Black citizens. Our members included various ministers, seminarians, part-time
students and laywomen and men in San Francisco and Berkeley. Our airfare had
been paid by a fund of the Episcopal diocese of San Francisco. Our hope was
also to reimburse the diocese for their generosity.
My appeals were mainly
postmarked from Selma, Alabama. I was elated to find out later that many
relatives and friends did answer the appeal.
But being naive, I did not
realize that many now so-called relatives and so-called friends would take some
vivid reactions.
And, unfortunately, several
relatives’ differences led to my parents in being extremely upset.
Learning the hard way that
upsetting some family—the wider family members—was critical. To those who
reacted in the negative, I was no longer part of their family. My mother and
father were unfortunately put to the task of being disparately treated and
harassed. Uncles and others who demanded answers to fit their own personal problems of
bias.
No fault of my parents. It
was unfair and out of place and uncalled for.
That is one reason that to
this day there is the similar deep racial prejudice throughout our nation. What
we fought to against in the ’60s is still alive and flourishing.
Selma and the multitude of other
marches led to the Voting Rights Act, which has been weakened by a bias supreme
court, leading to the renewal of new Jim Crow and gerrymandering of voting procedures.
A long time, but never long
enough.
Sincerely. Fil Kae, (phil kay) March 2015.
