This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches, three marches that occurred between March 7-25, 1965 as part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement, which would eventually lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
One of the organizers of the first march was Amelia Boynton Robinson. She is now 103-years-old, but that didn’t stop her from marking the poignant anniversary. From her wheelchair, Robinson held President Obama’s hand as they marched on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. She played a key role in organizing the march and even invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma back in 1965.
Local women – including Pearlie Evans, former district assistant to the Congressman Bill Clay – also marched from Selma 50 years ago. Evans has admittedly been an activist since the tender age of nine. In 1965, she was one of many who marched from Montgomery to the capital. Locked arm-in-arm, Evans said she was “one of the anchors of the group who mistakenly stepped onto the sidewalk and was hit by an officer’s bayonet.”
But did that stop her? “No,” she said. She “just kept on going.”
Evans and retired civil rights attorney Frankie Freeman devoted their lives to taking a stand and bringing about changes in policy and in the lives of others. Hedy Epstein is a local Holocaust survivor who was arrested while protesting in Ferguson.
Women still march and protest the injustices that plague our communities. “Courage will not skip this generation,” said Roslyn M. Brock, board chairman of the NAACP. That statement lit up social media last August and was imprinted on many T-shirts.
In The St. Louis American, Ferguson protestor Sana Cole wrote that she “joined the fight to help pave the way for a better America for my sons and generations to come.” Cole joined other women who are active on social media to spread the message. She also launched a Go Fund Me campaign to help raise money for Ferguson protesters.
In the months that followed the shooting death of Michael Brown Jr., men and women, black and white, young and old, from across the U.S., came together and chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” These protestors also chanted, “I can’t breathe,” the last words spoken by Eric Garner. His 24-year-old daughter Erica Garner also got involved in the movement, staging several “die ins” in Staten Island, N.Y.
Missouri state Senator Jamilah Nasheed was also on the front lines during the unrest in Ferguson, as was state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Patricia Bynes, Ferguson Township committeewoman. More recently, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the current injustices in St. Louis.
There are many other women who were out there, protesting and calling for justice in the months following Ferguson. Hundreds of photos show women holding hands, carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs and participating in “die ins” that were held across the country. These women, who are willing to fight for what’s right, will stimulate change. And so the movement continues.
Darlene Green is comptroller of the City of St. Louis.
