While roaming the country and observing different places, I had the opportunity to capture the present version of America’s past. What do I mean by that? Here’s an example from Selma, AL.
Road Trip - Selma, Alabama - In 1965 became the heart of the civil rights movement after a small group of local citizens organized 600 people to march to Montgomery in protest of the current voting practices in the state. At the time the board of elections would open only 2 days a month, arrive late and take long lunch breaks in order to discourage blacks from registering to vote. Those 600 people were attacked with dogs, tear gas, beaten and driven back to Selma. Two weeks later Martin Luther King joined them and completed the march to Montgomery, by which time the number had grown to 25,000.
Each year now, there is an annual bridge crossing Jubilee which takes place the first weekend in March at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and is attended by 30,000 people! It is a street festival of music, art and history. In addition, the Jubilee is the celebration and commemoration of the right to vote and March from Selma to Montgomery. It also serves as a reunion for many of the Voting and Civil Rights participants.
The politics of seeing….bridging the gap.