The Justice Initiative: The Bridge Crossing Jubilee Is So Powerful...

Justice Initiative

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee Is So Powerful

Evelyn Lowery (the wife of SCLC leader Joseph Lowery), John Lewis, Reverend C.T. Vivian and others at Memorial Park close to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. (2008 Photo - Heather Gray)

Hank Sanders

Sketches #1864

58th Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee

March 1, 2023

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful. Its breath and depth and reach are unlike any other event in this country and perhaps in this world. To help you to understand, I want to first take you on a four-minute trip or however long it takes you to read this Sketches Prologue. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

The First Selma Bridge Crossing

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads marchers across the

Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 21, 1965

The Reverence Martin Luther King, Jr. leads marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge

on March 21, 1965, the first of a 5 day march to Montgomery. Representative John Lewis, who as a young civil rights leader was clubbed by police, won House approval on Tuesday May 14, 1996 of a bill designating the march route from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery a national historic trail.

(Associated Press)

Let’s start on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Wait, let’s start with the special theme for this

Jubilee, Cross the Bridge, then be a Bridge to Selma. I want you to see the fullness of this theme in your mind, your heart and your spirit. Selma, Alabama has been a powerful Bridge in moving this country and the world toward a more meaningful democracy that includes so many of those previously left out. Selma and the Bridge became universal symbols and moving forces for freedom around the world. There is a powerful spirit that touches each person who visits Selma. Now Selma needs a Bridge to make its hardship reality consistent with its pervasive symbolism. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Let’s go back to Thursday, March 2, 2023 in our anticipating minds. Let’s travel to the Ronnie Sharpe Park in Selma. There is the Hands-On Selma Community Joy Festival for Children. There will be gifts for children, especially those impacted by the Selma Tornado on January 12. This is the first of four such events, one each day. At 7:00 p.m., we will mentally go to the Tabernacle Baptist Church for the Old Fashion Mass Meeting. Tabernacle was the first church in Selma that allowed a mass meeting for voting and civil rights. It was dangerous for churches as they were being bombed. This Old Fashioned Mass Meeting is the official opening of the Jubilee, just as the opening of the church for a mass meeting was a symbolic opening of the voting rights struggle in Selma, Alabama. Great speakers will lift our spirits and our vision.

The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Photo: Monument to the Selma-to-Montgomery march on Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama

(ACLU- Alabama)

Then continue on to Friday, March 3, 2023. In our mind’s eye we are visiting the voter

themed Jubilee Golf Tournament to get the day started. Then we go to the Education Summit with many nationally known presenters such as Anthony Browder and Dr. Raymond Winbush. We also visit the Children Sojourn to see children experiencing the joy of learning their history. Then there is the Voting Rights History Bowl where teams of children compete in a Voting Rights History contest. This is just a start for Friday. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Let’s continue to visit through our minds on Friday. There is the introduction into the Women’s Hall of Fame at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. Our women have often been the most effective forces in the struggle for voting rights but are too often left out of history books. A few are being lifted in this moment. Then there is the Jubilee Mock Trial where real lawyers and real law students try issues involving voting rights. It is both instructive and fun filled. There is also the screening of the film Freedom Riders followed by a question-and-answer session. More knowledge and inspiration. Finally, there is the Public Conversation Forum. I think it will be on the theme, Cross the Bridge, then be a Bridge for Selma. There are so many other events on Friday not named in this writing. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so

powerful.

Now raise your mind’s eye to view a few of the many events on Saturday. The schedule does not contain all of them. It is the fullest day of the five-day Jubilee Celebration and Commemoration. The day commences with the Foot Soldiers Breakfast with leaders of the voting rights struggle in the sixties sharing their experiences as they eat a free down-home breakfast. The day continues with the voting themed Jubilee Parade and Jubilee Festival. Thousands line up to see it. There are so many workshops, commemorations, celebrations and other events. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Keeping our eyes on Saturday, we see a special moment in the Intergenerational Hip Hop Political Summit. Also, some Twenty First Century Youth Leadership Movement alums will gather to share memories and hopes for one of the most impactful youth leadership movements in the country. There are so many other events. The day ends with the Freedom Flame Awards Gala where outstanding leaders in the struggle for voting and other rights are remembered and lifted. I wish I could review each and every event on this day, but time and space do not permit such. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Let’s continue on our voyage of the mind through the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Sunday

commences with the Annual Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast. Martin and Coretta were a team in the struggle. Their union represents unity. There are no keynote speakers which allows many leaders to share five-minute segments. This promotes a special unity with each leader putting a piece of the struggle puzzle on the imaginary Freedom Wall. These leaders include the heads of most national civil rights/voting rights organizations. Reverend Jesse Jackson will receive the Martin & Coretta King International Lifetime Achievement Award. Then people will attend various church services with speakers addressing the struggle for voting and human rights. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

Brown Chapel Church

During the Civil Rights Movement, Brown Chapel remained open after the State and Federal courts issued injunctions to prohibit mass meetings in black churches, providing shelter to the movement during the storms of resistance to social and political change.

Then we move our mind’s eye to the most sacred and core moments of the Jubilee: The

Bloody Sunday March. It begins with a rally in front of the Brown Chapel Church. Various leaders speak. Then we march to the Bridge where 600 or so marchers were brutally beaten on Sunday, March 7, 1965. Others will speak. Then President Joe Biden will speak at the foot of the Bridge. This will be Biden’s third time to attend the Jubilee, not including President Biden’s virtual appearance and remarks at the 2021 Martin & Coretta King Unity Breakfast during the heart of the pandemic. It is powerful for just one president to come to a city of fewer than 18,000 people. It is truly extraordinary for three sitting presidents and one former president to come to a city of fewer than 18,000 people for the same annual event. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

____

In 2013, Vice President Joe Biden, center, leads marchers

across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala

Vice President Joe Biden, center, leads marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

From left are Selma Mayor George Evans, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the Rev. Jesse Jackson,

the Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: March 3, 2013 at 12:44 p.m. | UPDATED: April 30, 2016 at 3:46 a.m.

Then there are other events before and after the Bloody Sunday March that we see in our mind’s eye. One event commenced with non-violence training on Monday, February 27, 2023 and runs through Wednesday. There are events scheduled after the sacred Bloody Sunday March. All in all, there are more than fifty events and meetings. And 90 percent are free. It is a massive moment. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.

The most powerful thing we see in our mind’s eye is the unique unity of the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. People from all walks of life come: Black folks and White folks; old folks and young folk; poor people and rich people; the powerful and the not so powerful; Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and non-believers; and Republicans and Democrats; etc. All these differences are melded together into one giant unity quilt for a few days.The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.