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Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
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Series/Staff Member:
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Selma 3/5/00 [2]
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---------------------------------------
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3 -.s -oo
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 2, 2000
FROM:
J. TERRY EDMOND
CC:
JOHN PODESTA
MARIA ECHA VESTE
MINYON MOORE
BEN JOHNSON
LORETTA UCELLI
SUBJECT:
SELMA SPEECH
(_ {_ :
SpeecAwvi l-;11)
Attached please find a draft of your remarks for Selma on March ·6. They reflect the
thoughts you shared during our meeting in the Oval earlier this week. I have also spoken with
Maria Echaveste, Minyon Moore, Sid Blumenthal, and Taylor Branch.
I will be traveling with you to California this weekend, and will be available to work with
you on any revisions. Thank you.
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
-~-~- 00
Draft 3/2/00 6:20pm
Edmonds
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
REMARKS AT 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND
PETTUS BRIDGE
SELMA, ALABAMA
MARCH 5, 2000
Acknowledgements: Rep. Lewis and Rep. Houghton, co-chairs of Faith and
Politics; Rev. Harris, Caretta Scott King, Andy Young, Joe Lowry, State Senator Hank
Sanders; Rose Sanders, President of the Voting Rights Museum; Mayor Smitherman; foot
soldiers of the movement, my fellow Americans.
I anr honored to join ttll of} o a in :memberi~ngle day in Selma~ became
a seminal moment in American history.lThirty five years ago} Qn this bridge, America's
long march toward freedom met a roadblock of violent
·tc~~~~a:z :;~
.peoplij! Vl6ttl~ e
u::. ~
resistance~ c£:~~1~~~
~ \(\lcS)t\.~~~~~
err€lB •n•G! tH.e r: :Hi ;g fr ssdom,~uld not l:Je dgtsBrsd. It .vas a
/\.._~~ ~ \\.LX.~~\}..
~~
rettcl--tha:tjHst bdere 1965, had been steele<!,~~-~riumph and tragedy. The breaking
of the color line at Ole Miss in 1962 by James Meredith ... the historic March on
Washington ... the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and President
Kennedy ... the bombing deaths of four little black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church
in Birmingham ... the Mississippi Freedom Summer. .. the passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 ..
We should remember that John Lewis, Hosea Williams and the 600 foot soldiers,
some of whom are with us today, absorbed with uncommon dignity, the unbridled force
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-s-~oo
of racism on "bloody Sunday." They put their lives on the line for the Me!jt 'aasie tight Of
Tfu~~'-~~1_~\k\UJS~x_v__.__~-m~3\~}.~~u ~'(_~,
Amerlmmxfemo"raey
the right to vot~ Be~the gut'tfttntees spel
'ifl the\ .
:~ifo'~:z~ ~..~._, tM '" ~s
h'\"-l-'- Fifteenth Amendmen~~65. only 250 Blacks~ one percent of voting-age Black)ffi
t-\"- \,.~\.\.\\b
OallM Cmmty -- were registered to vote\ b:l there was not a single Black elected
~\..l ~
official in tH:is CettRty. It wasn't indifference or alienation that kept them from the polls.
~-dK\.\},{1-XU.:-
.
It was <m @W=i: systeffi of exclusiOn
~~oil taxes, QsJ i &&d mt1m1dat10n and literacy tests
.
.
.
.
.
that even the testers themselves couldn't pass- all stood in the way of the Constitution.
~-
~i.:> ~ ~\fu\;_Q\....\.JI...,
~ t\~t--.l.:._;.>c._\..)_'--\ J
It is hard for us to imagine today, th8t meR~vomen, black and whi~Jactually
lost their lives for the right to cast a ballot_Jand diOo3e tlre'iroWn leaders. Bat.:tt~
~d many right here in Selma and Marion: Today, we honor the memory of Jimmy Lee
Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo and
~~~~t~Dothers whose names we may never
know, who made the supreme sacrifice for freedom.
But they did not die in vain. One week after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson
delivcr88
ggme
ofthe=mf\st sti•• in:g words ofthe civil lights II16 .·enrcill Mrewkc went on
~i\A_u<' \!01~ ~ tu\ ~b'(\:
~~ tek:v::isi~n t~oel.am:l, "At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single
place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at
Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in
Selma, Alabama."
2
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3-
~-oo
Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, emboldened by their faith in God and the
support of a white southerner in the Oval Office, Dr. King led 4,000 people across the
Pettus Bridge on the 54 mile trek to Montgomery.
Six months later President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
proclaiming that "The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for
breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because
they are different from other men."
there were only 300 Black elected officials nationwide, and just 3 African Americans ih
Congress. Today those numbers have swelled to nearly 9,000 Black elected officials, and
U,ul\L(L\.\\Jll.'-~~~~JJ,l.tilltl\. \,A_\:_A,t --
39 Black members ofCongres"\Today, African Americans hold the majority in Selma's
City Council and School Board -- and the number of African American registered voters
in Dallas County has risen from 250 in 1965 to more than 20,000 today.
And, as Dr. King predicted, white Southerners and the entire region of the South,
have also been transformed. He said, "Many Southern leaders are pathetically trapped by
3
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
s-s--oo
their own devices ... It is history's wry paradox that when Negroes win their struggle to be
free, those who have held them down will themselves be freed for the first time."
~s-for
mitt'iuns-cl-hard-ptessed working
familie~,
and welfare rolls-have
been cut in half to-rhe1r lO'Wc3t levels in ~rs.
But;'Wlitlemrr-naliem~ented economic pro~there are still
wide and disturbing disparities that fall along the color line -- in health, income,
perceptions of justice and educational achievement. It is clear We have built a bridge to
·~~,___l-\t~~
the 21st century that we can all walk across. And we couldn't
~~·-It.~ ~
ve gotten here ·
hadn't-'crossed the Pettus Bridge~. But our journey is not o er. Truth is marching on
and there are bridges yet to cross.
<j--------~
4
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-)-00
As long as African American income hovers near half that of whites, we know we
have another bridge to cross. As long as African American and Hispanic children are still
less likely than white children to
attenc~
or graduate from college, we know we have
another bridge to cross.
As long as African Americans and other minorities suffer two, three and four
times the rates of heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and cancer, we know we have another
bridge to cross. As long as African Americans believe they are unfairly targeted by police
because of the color of their skin, and police feel they are unfairly judged by the
community because of the color of their uniforms, we know we have another bridge to
cross. As long as the symbol of one person's pride creates another person's pain, we
know we have another bridge to cross. As long as less than half of America's eligible
1\I,JNU_\-\\...J!:.\
voters exercise the right that so many here in Selma ~t and died for, we know we
have another bridge to cross.
As long as the power of America's growing diversity is diminished by
discrimination and violent acts of hatred, we know we have another bridge to cross.
We can get to the other side, and we shall overcome if we avoid the terrible traps
of denial and complacency. Remember what Dr. King told us: "Human progress never
rolls on the wheels of inevitability, it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to
be co-workers with God."
5
�In the prologue of John Lewis' magnificent autobiography, "Walking with the
Wind," he tells a stunning story about a woodframe house, a group of young children and
a windstorm. That story has become a metaphor for his life and is a metaphor for the
work we all have to do. He talks about one day when he was playing with his brothers
and sisters and cousins in his aunt's very fragile house in Pike County, Alabama.
Suddenly an enormous wind came and lifted a comer of the house into the air. The
children were told to hold hands, walk to the comer of the rising house and "hold that
trembling house down with the weight of their small bodies." Later in life, Lewis
(
reflected, "Children holding hands, walking with the wind. That is America to me."
Together, we can build that beloved community. I believe everybody counts,
everybody should have a chance to succeed, and we all do better when we hold hands,
link arms and help each other. As we start our long march over this bridge and into a new
century, let us remember those who crossed before us and pledge to finally build the One
America of their dreams. Now is the time, as scripture tells us, to "build up, build up,
prepare the way. Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people." [Isaiah 57:14]
We know we have another bridge to cross. We know we can get to the other side.
And we know we shall overcome.
Thank you and God bless you all.
6
�•,
•·
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
Final 3/4/00 9:00pm
Edmonds
~-
t;- &0
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
REMARKS AT 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND
PETTUS BRIDGE
SELMA, ALABAMA
MARCH 5, 2000
cc;
S jJeecA wr; 1-:~c
J
�THE PRESI[.•,r.NT'
..tL..~
Llf''~
! ;F~·.. :
'::r::.:-p
..!
·.•. ··-·~·-·'
~-s-oo
Acknowledgements: Rep. Lewis and Rep.
Houghton, oo;chairs-GiFaith and Polittss; Rev.
Harris, Coretta Scott King, Andy Young, Joe Lowry,
Rev. Jackson; State Senator Hank Sanders; Rose
Sanders, President of the Voting Rights Museum;
Mayor Smitherman; foot soldiers of the movement,
my fellow Americans.
Thirty-five years ago, a single day in Selma
became a seminal moment in American history. On
this bridge, America's long march toward freedom
met a roadblock of violent resistance. But the
~
marchers would not take a detour off the,Woad ~
..;freedom.
�By 1965, their will had been steeled by both
triumph and tragedy. The breaking of the color line
at 0 le Miss by James Meredith ... the historic March
on Washington ... the assassinations of Medgar Evers,
Malcolm X and President Kennedy ... the bombing
deaths of four little black girls at the 16th Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham ... the Mississippi
Freedom Summer. .. the passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964.
Thirty-five years ago on "bloody Sunday,•• 600
foot soldiers, some of whom are with us today,
absorbed with uncommon dignity, the unbridled
force of racism.
2
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
1\..lej--
They put their lives on the line for t11e most basic
~
American right -- the right to vote, a right"' long
guaranteed, but long denied. Here in Dallas County,~~
~~.>
.
~,
only one percent of voting-age Blacks, 250 people,
were registered to vote. And there
wttS
not a siflgle
4£ide*~-l(
Black elected official. ~ were kept from the
~
polls, not by their own indifference or alienation, but
by systematic exclusion? poll taxes~intimidation
~literacy tests that even the testers themselves
couldn't pass. And by violence.
It may be hard for young people to believe, but
just 35 years ago, Americans, Black and white.\
3t!tlla~r
~-tw-~~~~.
lost their lives i# thcirpsa~l ~tt u;ggle:to
3
�\'
THE PRESIDENT H/-\S SEEN
3-l)-OD
Some died in Selma and Marion: Today, we
honor them for the patriots they were: Jimmy Lee
Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Liuzza and others
-
whose names we may never know., v.~ntade the
suprsme sacrifice for freedom.
~~;;
;e,:,
~·
tl'[~·,
a!~c1c t~
•
They did not die in vain. One week after Bloody
Sunday, President Johnson spoke to the nation in stirring words: "At times history and fate meet at a
single time in a single place to shape a turning point
in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at
Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at
Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma,
&.(
Alabama.~,,~~~~~~.
4
�\'
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-
'7-00
Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, emboldened
by their faith in God and the support of a white
southerner in the Oval Office, Dr. King led 4,000
people across the Pettus Bridge on the 54 mile trek to
Montgomery.
Six months later President Johnson signed the
Voting Rights Act -
, proclaiming that "The
vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by
man for breaking down injustice and destroying the
terrible walls which imprison men because they are
different from other men."
5
�'\
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-t;;-Oo
Those who walked by faith across this bridge led
us all to a better tomorrow. In 1964 there were only
300 Black elected officials nationwide, and just 3
African Americans in Congress. Today those
numbers have swelled to nearly 9,000 Black elected
officials, and 39 Black members of Congress.
Today, African Americans hold the majority in
Selma's City Council and School Board because the
number of African American registered voters in
Dallas County has risen from 250 in 1965 to more
than 20,000 today.
~Dr. King predicted, the rise of Black
Southerners to full citizenship also lifted their white
neighbors.
6
�t'
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
5
-t;- (f) 0
He said, "It is history's wry paradox that when
Negroes win their struggle to be free, those who have
held them down will themselves be freed for the first
time."
~~)~
~egell •er~ white and Black Southerners crossed a
bridge to the New South, leaving hatred and isolation
on the far side ... building vibrant cities, thriving
economies, and great universities, still enriched by
the old-time rhythms and rituals they all love, now
open to all things modem and people from all over
the world.
7
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-
5"- oo
The advance of freedom and opportunity has
taken our entire nation a mighty long way. We begin
the new millennium with great prosperity and the
lowest levels of African American and Hispanic
unemployment ever recorded. With greater diversity
in all walks of life and a cherished role in helping
those beyond our borders to leave their own racial,
ethnic, tribal and religious -~ts behind.
We have built a bridge to the 21st century 'lllit we
~Ul\lli.~~-h~
~~
can all walk across.~ Ami We could~ have gotten
~~
~+-~~
~ iftif~J=btace 1\IH:@ficsns-BQ@~~s the Pettus
•
8
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~
· Despite"unprecedented prosperity and real social
progress, there are still wide and disturbing
disparities that fall along the color line -- in health,
income, educational achievement and perceptions of
justice.
My fellow Americans, there are bridges yet to
cross.
As long as African American income hovers
near half that of whites, we have another bridge to
cross. As long as African American and Hispanic
children are more likely than white children to live in
poverty and less likely to attend or graduate from
college, we have another bridge to cross.
9
�\
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~
-'5""'-0D
As long as African Americans and other
minorities suffer two, three and four times the rates
of heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and cancer, we have
another bridge to cross. As long as African
Americans and Latinos believe they are unfairly
targeted by police because of the color of their skin,
and police feel they are unfairly judged by the
community because of the color of their uniforms, we
"'
~
have another bridge to cross. As long as thelsymbol
of one American's pride is the symbol of another
American's pain, we have another bridge to cross.
10
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3 -~:.-0{)
~As long as less than half of our eligible voters
exercise the right that so many here in Selma
marched and died for, we have another bridge to
cross.
As long as the power of America's growing
diversity remains diminished by discrimination and
~ ~\.1.1.1w-W..~j,tw..~
tern b)r violent acts of hatr , we have another bridge
·to cross.
~~~
But the bridges are there; standing on the strong
foundation"' of our Constitution, built throug~lent
tears and weary years
~+M@t
by our forbear , ~
~~~~~~ k.L~~·
II
"
.
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
?-,--oo
~*'li\.u. ~~~. ~ ~ \cu..~fu~.
'fhcj have ~uilt ths bridgef 'Sut to get to the other
~IN'~
sidet-, we too will have to march.
Remember~ Dr.
\~ w~·.
King Md
la15:
"Human
progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability, it
comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to
be co-workers with God."
12
�,.
.
THE PRESIDENT HP\S SEEN
~~r:;--oo
One day, as John was playing with his b thers,
siste , and cousins, an enormous wind lew and
a
I
lifted a co er of the house into the
with the weight of th r small
comer rose, they
on, until the
His aunt told
dies." When another
alked there togetli . And on and
ind died down. Later in life, ohn
'Children holding hands, walking witH he
. As long as we are willing to hold hands, we can
walk with any wind, cross any bridge.
~ lu.. ~ ~, ~ 00 ~.) ~ MA.aill ~.
13
�....
'
....
THE
P~ESIDENT H!\S SEEN
::>~~Oo
s we start our long march over this brid e and ·
, let us honor thos
toward the One Ameri
of their dreams a
- the B oved community -
ours ... with a happ heart and a
firm faith that we shall overcome.
Thank you and God bless you all.
14
�·'
, __
/
,~
·, ·.J
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~- -)-Oo
Final 3/4/00 9:00pm
Edmonds
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON ·.
REMARKS AT 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND
PETTUS BRIDGE
SELMA, ALABAMA
MARCH 5, 2000
cc:
5pt?eclt wl( f~·4J
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-~ao
Acknowledgements: Rep. Lewis and Rep.
Houghton, ee;chaiis=G£-Faith and Polittes; Rev.
Harris, Coretta Scott King; Andy Young, Joe Lowry,
Rev. Jackson; State Senator Hank Sanders; Rose
Sanders, President of the Voting Rights Museum;
Mayor Smitherman; foot soldiers of the movement,
my fellow Americans.
Thirty-five years ago, a single day in Selma
became a seminal moment in American history. On
this bridge, America's long march toward freedom
met a roadblock of violent resistance. But the
·~
marchers would not take a detour off the,hroad ~
�By 1965, their will had been steeled by both
triumph and tragedy. The breaking of the color line
at 0 le Miss by James Meredith ... the historic March
on Washington ... the assassinations of Medgar Evers,
Malcolm X and President Kennedy ... the bombing
deaths of four little black girls at the 16th Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham ... the Mississippi
Freedom Summer. .. the passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964.
Thirty-five years ago on "bloody Sunday,•' 600
foot soldiers, some of whom are with us today,
absorbed with uncommon dignity, the unbridled
force of racism.
2
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'1-~-0o
1\J.e..t-
They put their lives on the line for tae most basic
~
American right -- the right to vote, a righllong
guaranteed, but long denied. Here in Dallas County,~~
~~..)
~ only one percent of voting-age Blacks, 250 people,
were registered to vote. And there Vftts not a single
4fv:ae*~-t(
Black elected official. ~ were kept from the
~
polls, not by their own indifference or alienation, but
by systematic exclusio~~ poll taxes?intimidation
~literacy tests that even the testers themselves
couldn't pass. And by violence.
It may be hard for young people to believe, but
just 35 years ago, Americans, Black and white~
a.muaMy lost their lives~~~~~·
~e.
3
�THE PRESIDENT H.t\S SEEN
~
-/)-oo
Some died in Selma and Marion: Today, we
. honor them for the patriots they were: Jimmy Lee
Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo and others
~
whose names we may never know. ~lim..®ade the
supreme sacrifice for treedom.
They did not die in vain. One week after Bloody
Sunday, Presid~nt Johnson spoke to the nation in
stirring words: "At times history and fate meet at a
single time in a single place to shape a turning point
in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at
Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at
Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma,
"i
Alabama.~,,~~~~~~.
4
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~
-')-Oo
Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, emboldened
by their faith in God and the support of a white
southerner in the Oval Office, Dr. King led 4,000
people across the Pettus Bridge on the 54 mile trek to
Montgomery.
Six months late~ President Johnson signed the
vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by
man for breaking down injustice and destroying the
terrible walls which imprison men because they are
different from other men."
5
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
9 -~Oo
Those who walked by faith across this bridge led
us all to a better tomorrow. In 1964 there were only
300 Black elected officials nationwide, and just 3
African Americans in Congress. Today those
numbers have swelled to nearly 9,000 Black elected
officials, and 39 Black members of Congress.
Today, African Americans hold the majority in
Selma's City Council and School Board because the
number of African American registered voters in
Dallas County has risen from 250 in 1965 to more
than 20,000 today.
~ Dr. King predicted, the rise of Black
Southerners to full citizenship also lifted their white
neighbors.
6
�~----------
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
1 - s--c?o
He said, "It is history's wry paradox that when
Negroes win their struggle to be free, those who have
held them down will themselves be freed for the first
time."
~~) tuul"egetllet~ white and Black Southerners crossed a
bridge to the New South, leaving hatred and isolation
on the far side ... building vibrant cities, thriving
economies, and great universities, still enriched by
the old-time rhythms and rituals they all love, now
open to all things modem and people from all over
the world.
7
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-)
-oo
The advance of freedom and opportunity has
taken our entire nation a mighty long way. We begin
the new millennium with great prosperity and the
lowest levels of African American and Hispanic
unemployment ever recorded. With greater diversity
in all walks of life and a cherished role in helping
those beyond our borders to leave their own racial,
ethnic, tribal and religious
~ts behind.
We have built a bridge to the 21st century 1llt we
~~~~-h~
~~
can all walk across.~A?ml We couldtr!t have ~e'!Jtten
~~
~;-~~
lla&e iftl116:0tac e·hm@ficans-lia@t¥4~s
the Pettus
•
8
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~
Despite"unprecedented prosperity and real social
progress, there are still wide and disturbing
disparities that fall along the color line -- in health,
income, educational achievement and perceptions of
justice.
My fellow Americans, there are bridges yet to
cross.
As long as African American income hovers
near half that of whites, we have another bridge to
cross. As long as African American and Hispanic
children are more likely than white children to live in
poverty and less likely to attend or graduate from
college, we have another bridge to cross.
9
�.-·
THE PRESIDENT HD~ _c:pc.-N
~- >---oo
· ' "·
,J . _
As long as African Americans and other
minorities suffer two, three and four times the rates
of heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and cancer, we have
another bridge to cross. As long as African
Americans and Latinos believe they are unfairly
targeted by police because of the color of their skin,
and police feel they are unfairly judged by the
community because of the color of their uniforms, we
,..
~
have another bridge to cross. As long as the lsymbol
of one American's pride is the symbol of another
American's pain, we have another bridge to cross.
10
�•'
THE
PRt~'r'>r:-~~;
5---).- tJO
YAS SEEN
~As long as less than half of our eligible voters
exercise the right that so many here in Selma
marched and died for, we have another bridge to
cross.
As long as the power of America's growing
diversity remains diminished by discrimination and
.
.
.
tern b); violent acts @f hatr
~~ ~w..~j,""'-~
, we have another bridge
to cross.
~~~
But the bridges are there~ standing on the strong
.
1m..
foundations of our Constitution, built throughL silent
.
tears and weary years ~4tree6t' by our forbear , ~
~~LA.k~~Th tu_~~·
11
�lHE PRESIDE!~-~ >-L~L~ ~~_:,
9- /i"-00
~'¥fli\u. ~~~. ~ ~ ~~fu~.
l1fe:j Juwe emit ths bridgef 'Sut to get to the other
~~C¥~
side~, we too will have to march.
\~ w~·.
Remember wiiat Dr. King 1¥fl i
¥'5:
"Human
progress never rolls on t!le wheels of inevitability, it
comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to
be co-workers with God."
12
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-5":...oo
One day, as John was playing with his b thers,
siste , and cousins, an enormous wind lew and
I
lifted a co er of the house into the
with the weight of th r small
comer rose, they
on, until the
~-
His aunt told
When another
alked there togetR . And on and
ind died down. Later in life, ohn
'Children holding hands, walking witH he
As long as we are willing to hold hands, we can
walk with any wind, cross any bridge.
~(JJ,.. ~ ~) ~00~.) ~~~.
13
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
-=?- t7-oo
s we start our long march over this brid e and
, let us honor thos
toward the One Ameri
of their dreams a
- the B oved community -
ours ... with a happ heart and a
firm faith that we shall overcome.
Thank you and God bless you all.
14
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
Draft 3/3/00 6:00pm
Edmonds
~-s
. . oo
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
REMARKS AT 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND
PETTUS BRIDGE
SELMA, ALABAMA
MARCH 5, 2000
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THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
,
.
:'.
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Acknowledgements: Rep. Lewis and Rep.
Houghton, co-chairs of Faith and Politics; Rev.
Harris, Caretta Scott King, Andy Young, Joe Lowry,
State Senator Hank Sanders; Rose Sanders, President
of the Voting Rights Museum; Mayor Smitherman;
foot soldiers of the movement, my fellow Americans.
-1- am honored to join all of you in remembering a
single day in Selma -tt.t became a seminal moment in
American history. (ihirty five years a'i?)tk this
bridge, America's long march toward freedom met a
roadblock ofviolent resistance. But the
~~"--~~~
:~:the
~(_)_, ~~\\_pc ople would not bi 8etxcfr.ed ~ the road to freedom
would-~not be~-
2
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3-~'0B
.
.
~
-tl~l>l'M
.
It vvas---a road that just b~ 196 5, tml been steeled
by both triumph and tragedy. The breaking of the
color line at 0 le Miss fit 19 GQ by James Meredith ...
the historic March on Washington ... the
assassinations ofMedgar Evers, Malcolm X and
President Kennedy ... the bombing deaths of four little
black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham ... the Mississippi Freedom Summer. .. the
·passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
\VilliatHs B:Bd the 600 foot soldiers, some of whom
are with us today, absorbed with uncommon dignity,
the unbridled force of racism en "hhH~~wiettn~."
3
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-s--4o
They put their lives on the line for the most basic
~~eric~moetali!¥- the
right to
vote.:,~
-Bespite the guaranle~speficd out in the Fifteenth ·
~
~·~~~
.cA:mendtnent, il:i¥%5, only h58 Ia lacks -- one percent
~v~
of voting-age Blacks_\i-n 9-alhro Ce aRty -- were
registered to vote. And there was not a single Black
.
elected
. ~ l~ ~~C'- -\w__, ~ l ii.JJ.t-~ ~~ tl"""'officia~ik
ftaf\i fl ;n-?t indifterence
e
~lA}~
.
or alienation that
y.
pt=them frsm tlle ~· lt"WEts:=an
~
.mn: ct system{!f exclusion -- poll taxes, kl :1 !al%d
intimidation and literacy tests that even the testers
themselves couldn't pass ---all stood in the vvti)' 'rlbthe
G:ons tit atit¥n.
4
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~~j~ . ~
It may be hard for many @if the young people
white, ill. otu life tit 38 , actually lost their lives fm
too
··~~~~tt>~l
rigB.t to~lhf1a1ui cho@8C tHeir
7
0\\ ll
lsads-rs.
~-<\N-J...,~
Btd:til:y~ Anehtn:n;t right t~ in Selma and
.
.
~~~~~~~\.l\.t\L:
Marion: Today, we honor ~m~nflary of Jimmy Lee
'6f others whose names we may never know, who
made the supreme sacrifice for freedom.
-~··
Bmfhey, did not die in vain.
5
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
1-5-00
One week after Bloody Sunday, President Johnson
~~fu.J_~~\
~ered S@ifi8 of the 1~
righis
ill oue}fl Cllt
te;n~Kl
'Arl~:Sll
he
stirring words~~r&tbe ci.vil
\?Vent 8!!
natienal t~ \' i.J~n
cnm, "At times history and fate meet at a
single time in a single place to shape a turning point
in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at
Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at
Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma,
Alabama."
Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, emboldened
by their faith in God and the support of a white
southerner in the Oval Office, Dr. King led 4,000
people across the Pettus Bridge on the 54 mile trek to
Montgomery.
6
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN.
~- )-oo
WQ
Six months
J.aet President Johnson signed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, proclaiming that "The
vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by
man for breaking down injustice and destroying the
terrible walls which imprison men because they are
different from other men."
-~~~~~·~IX.~
i\niericcnook:a leatJ 8-f faith--fF6Hl this bridge &fi€1 ·
~%ohl.W~~~.
~Ye ars.-all better fur it. In
1964 there were only 300
Black elected officials nationwide, and just 3 African
Americans in Congress. Today those numbers have
swelled to nearly 9,000 Black elected officials, and
39 Black members of Congress.
7
�--~~~~~~~~~~---------
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-s--oo
Today, African Americans hold the majority in
~~
Selma's City Council and School Board-- ami the
number of African American registered voters in
Dallas County has risen from 250 in 1965 to more
than 20,000 today.
T~ivil-HghtS-m:O"'v'ement ,;v.as- also
the catalyst
for a broader hun1an rights-movement in Ameriea
that included the fight for equal rights for aU-regardless. of rae~, religion or sexual
~e-t11tire
regibrrof tlre- SOtlttF, have
-trangfGr tiled.
8
a~eeen
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3- 5 -oo
trapt3sd t, their own de\ i@@-8 ... It is history's wry
paradox that when Negroes win their struggle to be
Jree; those who have held them down will themselves
be freed for the first time."
T~lL\;> ~+GCLLL\:J~~~
~ \'W1~~ t9ll~
rhe: S•;nth, i1tcl£'etl; S crossed a bridge;\ ~e
j
'
~~
&'-m"~~_)~~
other sids of isolation and national tli8aain~
~Vv~
~ vibrant cities~ thriving economies, ~&"f!f.the
~ l~l.~"'t\"tl.lk~~~ ~
n-atioo' 8=
t.wllcgss,-professional spurts t6rin1Rmd
~~~~ ~~~~+o ~\,~~~~~
~~&f cornmtilirty=that=!Hfs tatnoo farftler
~~.~~fu~~~'
adversat i~ intG -f~s. That is somethiRB=-'ve san
all take pt ide 'ID.
9
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
I.S -.;--oo
k~~c\fw-'-'-~\j_ 0..~~ ~~
ffigether, our entire nation baa o• wne a mighty
.
.
lJ.__~ ~\_\.\~~~ ~'-~L\._~~· ~~ ~~~
long way ·A In":the past seven years alone, we'itave
ID-~~~~~~
Greated nearly 21 rnilli:(:)n ne"vv jobs. African
American and Hispanic unemployment t!: ct the
l>:j ~~ 1M_ C!__U
l'*mrest levels ever recordedJa-r/.sethe ~,nest
w~~~ ~ (1._\J~].iu..~ ~'-u-. L~~~
-}30VCW~
itr2t-Pyears. £rime i~-ycar-low.
~~~" l~ ~~~ ~1-~\-N\..~
J
Mt taxeszfot tni-llions..()f hard-pressed working
*"'
[\._~ ~\__~ t.~\i~tJ ~\l_~ .
families, unckvelfare rolls have been cut-in half to
their4o h est hn~-=irF3@
)rctl:f5.
lf~
··[But, \Vhile our natiot1Ctlj-oy.s unprecedented
-@COB~ftlic
CL~ ~~~~ ~'--~ ~
prosperity;' there are still wide and
disturbing disparities that fall along the color line-~
in health, income, perceptions of justice and
educational achievement. ~
10
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~-~ -oo
I
It isadmr: We have built a bridge to the 21st
1.
century that we can all walk across. And we couldn't
looa~~~~
have gotten here if we hadn't crossed the Pettus
~
Bridge first. But our journey is not over. [Jruth is
s~~~~~"'~
marching on ana there are bridges yet to cross.
As long as African American income hovers
near half that of whites, \\ c lat4if!v we have another
bridge to cross. As long as African. American and
~~~~~~
~\_ ~t,-~ ~-~ ~~\.~
Hispanic children are d
cum
less likely ili:afl: ;;:kite
"'
ehildfefl. to attend or graduate from college,
we have another bridge to cross.
11
V~tt
lmew
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'S-) -00
As long as African Americans and other
minorities suffer two, three and four times the rates
of heart disease, AIDS, diabetes and
~
cancer,~
we have another bridge to cross. As long as
African Americans and Latinos believe they are
unfairly targeted by police because of the color of
·their skin, and police feel they are unfairly judged by
the community because of the color of their
uniforms, wslMs.w we have another bridge to cross.
As long as the symbol of one ~~n's pride is the
~~"
symbol of another psrson's pain, we
another bridge to cross.
12
.
]rn ww
we have
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'3-~-oo
~
As long as less than half of Ant:Iisa's
eligible
..
voters exercise the right that so marty here in Selma
~~~~~
~llJPg ~
.c! ..
t·ls\~
··:./
rought 8ild i!ioo for, M lM.W we have another bridge
to cross.
As long as the power of America's growing
~~
-fwvvt_~
diversity ~diminished by discrimination and''violent
acts of hatred,
\llC
laic w we have another bridge to
cross.
~ \\t.__t. ~~ ~' \\c<0~ ~m~~(\\l"- ~~~"--~~~~-~
· b\ ~t~ ~~~ t,:'.l.llit-~ ~~-~-~flJL~~\ItlJ.a)
'\
~~~~\,U-U-. 1h>t"'-~~~\Ju._~) WS\'6
J{e san get to the other side, and"" e :sfiall
1
~~~-:if-~=~::::;::::~ttlaRd
~ e_~J&4Qn::;:s&£t~
f
~0!
-eomJ:3laeeHe)'.
13
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�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
'i-')-00
Remember what Dr. King told us: "Human
progress never rolls on the wheels of inevitability, it
comes through the tireless efforts· of men willing to
be co-workers with God."
...
t In the prologue of John Lewis'. magnificent
autobiography, "Walking with the Wind," he tells a
~\ ~~~
.t"'-~~\.~.W-1_~ ~~)
stunning story about )\ woodframe house, a group of
young children and a windstorm. .:f~as
become:::a::tnstaphor foL.his-life and is a metapher4or
tlre::work VvTc ail have to-00. He talks--about one day
'Yhen l:!:swas playing ¥lith-his brothers and sisters
and cousins in his-aunt's very fragile house in-Pike
County, P...labama-:
14
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
~ -$"-00
;2.
~~~)~~\MA~~~\Jl\.~'-,~\)~~
81 Mi! :ml:;: an enormous wind eMHe and lifted a
-
~-
·~~~~
comer of the house into the air.~ The children~
f8kl to hold hands, walk to the comer of the rising
house and "hold that trembling house down with the
\_\__~~~~~ ~:)~~~~~\ill.J.
weight of their small ~odie~.'A Later in life, i::e¥vis~~~
~~~~j ~Gl ~,\b\.~&w-\.(J~-~.
reflected, "Children holding hands, walking with the
wind. That is America to me."
k ~6"""- \»'--<:\__'-'--- L~ ~- V\B.& ~.J ~ ~
~\_, tL~ ~ \N~&. ~ ~"'"~Q_\.l~ L~ I
T-egetlwr, \VC ean build that belc ved community.
d
hands, link arms-and help each other.
15
�THE PRESIDENT HAS SEE.N
l3-~-oo
As we start our long march over this bridge and
~
into a new century, let us r~meftlber those who
~~~~-b~~~ f.trm--n_~
crossed before u~and pletige !lo fift.Qlly-build the One
-ful_~~~t_~
®-.&_~""-\.;; ~ ~ ~ \}J_~~
Ameri Cll).._of their dreams~ Now i:i
:tho ti: myat"'
,..l
~~.~~~~~~
scripture tel±s-us, to "ballif up, build up-;-prepare-the
way. Remove the obstacles out of the way of my
people." [fsaiah 57:14]
We kno\v 'Ne have another bridge-to cross. --We
lffio·v" \Ve will get to the other side.
~6,..nd
shall overcome.
Thank you and God bless you all.
16
vle kno\v we
�Draft 3/3/00 6:00pm
Edmonds
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
REMARKS AT 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH ACROSS EDMUND
PETTUS BRIDGE
SELMA, ALABAMA
MARCH 5, 2000
1
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The New York Times, March 11, 1995
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
March ll, 1995, Saturday, Late Edition- Final
NAME: George C. Wallace
SECTION: Section 1; Page 1; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 984 words
HEADLINE: Emotional March Gains a Repentant Wallace
BYLINE: By RICK BRAGG
DATELINE: MONTGOMERY, Ala, March 10
BODY:
The marchers swarmed around the old man in the wheelchair, some to tell him he was forgiven,
some to whisper that he could never be forgiven, not today, not a million years from now. Yet to all
of the people who retraced the steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march 30 years
ago, George C. Wallace offered an apology for a doomed ideal.
The former Alabama Governor, whose name became shorthand for much of the worst of white
Southern opposition to the civil rights movement, held hands with men and women he had once
held down with the power of his office. To one aging civil rights war horse, he mumbled, "I love
you."
Three decades ago, he was preaching the evil of integration and found approval, even adoration, in
the eyes of many white Alabamians. There was the legendary stand in the schoolhouse door, to keep
blacks from registering at the University of Alabama. It was his state troopers who used billy clubs
and tear gas to control and intimidate marchers on the way to Selma. Then, he took his message
nationwide in a run for President in 1968.
A would-be assassin's bullet in a Maryland shopping center in 1972 made him a cripple, but his old
words and views echo today on the lips of conservative politicians and others, even though the man
people here just call "Th' Guv'na' " has long since capitulated, apologized and begged for forgiveness.
Now 75, in a wheelchair for a third of his life, he was too old and sick to make a speech to the 200
marchers, mostly black, who gathered at the St. Jude School in Montgomery, as they did on this day
three decades ago. Instead, an aide read his remarks as Mr. Wallace, who is almost completely deaf,
sat in silence.
"My friends," the aide read, "I have been watching your progress this week as you retrace your
footsteps of 30 years ago and cannot help but reflect on those days that remain so vivid in my
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memory. Those were different days and we all in our own ways were different people. We have
learned hard and important lessons in the 30 years that have passed between us since the days
surrounding your first walk along Highway 80."
A woman in a brown beret quietly said, "Amen."
"Those days were filled with passionate convictions and a magnified sense of purpose that imposed a
feeling on us all that events of the day were bigger than any one individual," the speech continued in
its borrowed voice. "Much has transpired since those days. A great deal has been lost and a great
deal has been gained, and here we are. My message to you today is, Welcome to Montgomery.
"May your message be heard. May your lessons never be forgotten. May our history be always
rem em be red."
The marchers applauded. For 10 years now, Mr. Wallace has admitted the wrongness of his deeds 30
years ago. Still, to many of the people who suffered at the hands of the law-enforcement officers he
commanded, it was important that he said it on this symbolic day.
But 30 yards away, 58-year-old Rufus Vanable sat in the shade of a tall pine tree and refused to
hear.
"I ain't even interested in what he's saying," said Mr. Vanable, a retired construction worker who was
part of the march that was bloodied on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. "If you lived through it,
you wouldn't be either. If he thinks this will ease his mind in some way, let him do it. I'm not
interested in looking at his face. It brings back too many memories.
"Seeing him say that he's sorry ain't gonna do me no good at all."
Like many others in the crowd, he said Mr. Wallace, a religious man, was trying more to clear a path
to heaven than to soothe the painful memories of others. He said that he held no malice for Mr.
Wallace and that he even believed the former Governor had changed, "but it means a hell of a lot
more to him that it does to me."
"He's trying to get right with his maker, that's what he's doing," Mr. Vanable said. "It was hell. Any
man who'd sic dogs on a child. He ain't made up for it."
As the marchers sang "We Shall Overcome," Mr. Vanable sat under his tree and sang to himself. Mr.
Wallace, lost in the crowd, never saw him, either.
Others were more forgiving.
"Thank you, for coming out of your sickness to meet us," said Joseph E. Lowery, the president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and an organizer of that first march. "You are a different
George Wallace today. We both serve a God who can make the desert bloom. We ask God's blessing
on you."
The politics and economics of race are more complicated now, and the marchers, including the old
survivors of meaner days, worry that the nation is going backward in its racial tolerance. They hear
modern-day leaders blame blacks, because of crime and welfare, for what is wrong with America.
The marchers said they hoped those leaders were watching as G'eorge Wallace joined hands with
them and bowed his head with them. It might be only symbolism, they said, but it was the right kind
of symbolism.
"It's very important, in this day and time," said Gerri Perry, the principal at St. Jude. "It is important
for people to see him, saying this.
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"Back then, 30 years ago, I didn't think I would ever see anything like this."
What she saw was an old man wanting to set things right, for whatever reasons. The marchers did
not ask him to be there. He asked them if they would give him a few minutes of their time.
He might be the only Alabama Governor to meet them. As of Friday afternoon, the marchers and
Gov. Fob James, a Republican who ran on a conservative platform, had still not agreed to meet.
Instead, the marchers gathered around the man they had once hated. That old Wallace, the fiery
judge who stood on the back of trucks and shouted, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever," was nowhere around.
"He's been about to die for the last 10 years, and he's still living," Mr. Vanable said. "God's gonna
make him pay."
GRAPHIC: Photos: The scene on March 7, 1965, when Alabama state troopers dispersed marchers in
Selma. (Associated Press); Ex-Gov. George C. Wallace and the Rev. Joseph Lowery of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference. (Alan S. Weiner for The New York Times)(pg. 1)
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The Ethnic NewsWatch, March 29, 1995 .
Copyright 1995 SOFTLINE INFORMATION, INC.
The Ethnic NewsWatch
Tri-State Defender
March 29, 1995
SECTION: Vol. 45; No. 12; Pg. Sa
LENGTH: 615 words
HEADLINE: Remembering Bloody Sunday
BYLINE: Jackson, Bernice P.
BODY:
Remembering Bloody Sunday.
By Bernice P. Jackson
Only 30 years ago men and women were viciously beaten in Selma, Alabama so that
African-Americans might have the right to vote. A Black and a White man lost their lives in those
bloody days. Theirs is a sacrifice that we dare not forget. Are you registered to vote?
A walk through the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a walk through our history. This
three-year-old facility is a self-directed, multimedia journey which shows you everything from
Colored and White water fountains to a burned out Freedom Ride bus to the prison door where Dr.
King wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail. It also shows the march from Selma to Montgomery in
1965.
It was 30 years ago this March that a young Black activist, Jimmy Lee Jackson was murdered. His
killing prompted a 54-mile protest march sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. The marchers, 1500 strong and led by Hosea Williams
and John Lewis (now a U.S. congressman from Atlanta), left Brown Chapel church that Sunday
morning, but as they began to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge they could see Alabama state
troopers and others blocking their way. After a brief warning, the troopers rushed forward, as did the
mounted possemen. Tear gas was shot at the unarmed marchers. Nightsticks flailing, the troopers
beat many of the marchers and onlookers threw bricks and bottles at them. John Lewis was among
those badly beaten. That day, March 7, 1965, became known as Bloody Sunday.
The SCLC immediately planned a second attempt of the Selma to Montgomery march for March 9,
which would be led by Dr. King and other national civil rights leaders. Under a federal court
injunction and pressured by national and local law enforcement officials, the marchers went only
across the bridge and then turned back. That evening a White clergyman from Boston, Rev. James
Reeb, was fatally beaten in downtown Selma.
Three weeks later, on March 21, Dr. King and others led thousands of marchers across the Edmund
I of2
3/112000 8:36AM
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Pettus Bridge and began the long trek to Montgomery. By the time they assembled in downtown
Montgomery several days later, they were 25,000 strong. Five months later the Voting Rights Act
was passed and Alabama Black voters were at last guaranteed the right to vote.
This March SCLC and the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma are sponsoring a commemoration
of the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery march. This
commemoration will include a women's conference, honoring the "Invisible Giants" of the civil rights
movement; a cultural jubilee festival, a legal conference sponsored by the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense
Fund, an interfaith religious service and a National Voting Rights Museum Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremony.
But lifting up the past won't be the entirety of the week. A national student and youth gathering,
"Countdown 2000: Setting the Black Youth Agenda: will bring together students and youth from
across the country to guild a civil rights agenda for the future. Many ofthese young people have
already been actively involved in local voter registration efforts and have been organizing their local
communities against violence and community problems such as environmental racism.
Only 30 years ago men and women were viciously beaten in Selma, Alabama so that
African-Americans might have the right to vote. A Black and a White man lost their lives in those
bloody days. Theirs is a sacrifice that we dare not forget. Are you registered to vote?
For additional information contact the National Voting Rights Museum, 1012 Water Avenue, Selma,
AL 36702- (205) 481-0800).
T\
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The Ethnic NewsWatch, March 25, 1995
Copyright 1995 SOFTLINE INFORMATION, INC.
The Ethnic NewsWatch
Michigan Citizen
March 25, 1995
SECTION: Vol. XVII; No. 17; Pg. A7
LENGTH: 547 words
HEADLINE: Remembering Bloody Sunday
BYLINE: Jackson, Bernice Powell
BODY:
Remembering Bloody Sunday.
A walk through the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a walk through our history. This three-year
old facility is a self-directed, multi-media journey which shows you everything form colored and
white water fountains to a burned out Freedom Ride bus to the prison door where Dr. King wrote his
letter from a Birmingham jail. It also shows the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
It was 30 years ago this March that a young Black activist, Jimmy Lee Jackson was murdered. His
killing prompted a 54-mile protest march sponsored by the Southern Christian leadership Conference
(SCLC) from Selma to Montgomery.
The marchers, 1500 strong and led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis (now a U.S. congressman from
Atlanta), left Brown Chapel church that Sunday morning, but as they began to cross the Edmund
Pettus Bridge they could see Alabama state troopers and others blocking their way.
After a brief warning, the troopers rushed forward, as did the mounted posse men. Tear gas was shot
at the unarmed marchers. Night-sticks flailing, the troopers beat many of the marchers and
no-lookers threw bricks and bottles at them.
John Lewis was among those only beaten. That day, march 7, 1965, became known as Bloody
Sunday.
THE SCLC IMMEDIATELY planned a second attempt of the Selma to Montgomery march for March
9, which would be led by Dr. King and other national civil rights leaders. Under a federal court
injunction and pressured by national and local law enforcement officials, the marchers went only
across the bridge and then turned back. That evening a white clergy-man from Boston, Rev. James
Reeb, was fatally beaten in downtown Selma.
Three weeks later, on March 21, Dr. King and others led thousands of marchers across the Edmund
pettus Bridge and began the long trek to Montgomery. By the time they assembled in downtown
Montgomery several days later, they were 25,000 strong. Five months later the Voting Rights Act
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was passed and Alabama Black voters were at last guaranteed the right to vote.
This March SCLC and the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma are sponsoring a commemoration
of the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery march. This
commemoration will include a women's conference, honoring the "Invisible Giants" of the civil rights
movement; a cultural jubilee festival a legal conference sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, an interfaith religious service and a National Voting Rights Museum Hall of Fame Induction
Ceremony.
But lifting up the past won't be the entirety of the week. A national student and youth gathering,"
Countdown 2000: Setting the Black Youth Agenda" will bring together students and youth from
across the country to build a civil rights agenda for the future. Many of these young people have
already been actively involved in local voter registration efforts and have been organizing their local
communities against violence and community problems such as environmental racism.
Only 30 years ago men and women were viciously beaten in Selma, Alabama so that African
Americans might have the right to vote. A Black man and a white man lost their lives those bloody
days. There's a sacrifice that we dare not forget. Are you registered to vote?
ETHNIC-GROUP: African/Caribbean
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The Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 1995
Copyright 1995 The Christian Science Publishing Society
The Christian Science Monitor
March 21, 1995, Tuesday
SECTION: OPINION/ESSAYS; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 600 words
HEADLINE: Remembering Selma 1965
BYLINE: Nicolaus Mills; Nicolaus Mills is profe2sor of American studies at Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville, N.Y., and author of "Like a Holy Crusade: Mississippi 1964."
BODY:
MARCH 21, 1965: Along with thousands of other civil-rights protesters, I huddle in the early
morning cold outside Brown's Chapel in Selma, Ala. It is the start of what would later be called the
Selma-to-Montgomery March. But this morning my mind is not on how historians will view the
day. I am wondering if we will make it as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge a few miles away or
whether, like earlier marchers who had come to Selma to support a voting-rights drive, we, too, will
meet with violence at the bridge.
That earlier violence had caused President Johnson to go before Congress and in a nationally
televised address urge swift passage of the legislation that would become the Voting Rights Act of
1965.
But the president's words -- his comparison of Selma to Lexington and Concord -- do not seem like
much assurance this morning. By midafternoon we did make it to the bridge, and four days later the
march reached Montgomery, where it was joined by 25,000 supporters at a rally in front of the old
state capitol.
But in 1995 it is not nostalgia I feel for Selma. My memories are more mixed, black and white
pictures that have changed over time. My first memory is of a newspaper photo taken two weeks
before I arrived in Selma on a day now known as Bloody Sunday. The picture is not sharp. The
overcast sky, the photographer's distance from the violence have muted the clarity the picture should
have. The picture is dominated by Alabama state troopers clubbing black civil-rights demonstrators.
There is no looking at this picture and saying you do not see it all.
The second picture is much happier. It was taken on the day the second Selma march began. I am in
this picture, but nobody's face, not even that of the men leading the parade -- Martin Luther King
and, on either side of him, Ralph Bunche and Ralph Abernathy -- can be seen. I find the anonymity
reassuring. It reflects the fact that at its best the civil-rights movement was a mass movement, the
sacrifices of many rather than the heroism of a few. Yet something about this photo makes me
uneasy. It hides the fact that along the highway the federalized Alabama National Guard stood
watch. It mutes the shouts of "white nigger" that came from everywhere.
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'"'
The picture I like best is one never taken. It is Monday, and 20 of us are clearing a pasture where the
Selma marchers will stop and rest for the night. Without enough rakes and shovels, it is slow going.
But the sun is warm, and we know we will have the tents up by evening. Suddenly a caravan of cars
pulls up along the highway, and the men in them pile out. We are too far away to hear their shouts,
but we can see the rebel flags draped over their car hoods. Hemmed in by barbed wire, there is no
place we can run or hide. We can only hope they do not have guns. But we are also strangely calm.
There is no place we would rather be.
At the end of the week, I returned North and wrote a small piece about Selma in the newspaper of
the university I was attending. A few days later the hate calls started. Always obscene. Always late at
night.
We have come a long way since then. John Lewis, the former chairman of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee and one of those badly beaten on Bloody Sunday, now sits in Congress.
But these days I worry more about civil rights than I did in 1965. I worry that the next step we take
as we struggle to move to real equality will generate more resistance than anyone realizes. Most of
all, I worry that the satisfaction my generation of blacks and whites took in finding common cause is
gone.
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The Record, March 5, 1995
Copyright 1995 Bergen Record Corp.
The Record
March 5, 1995; SUNDAY; ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 728 words
HEADLINE: MARCHERS TO RETRACE 54-MILE CIVIL-RIGHTS TREK
REMEMBERING BLOODY SUNDAY'
SOURCE: Wire services
BYLINE: PAUL NEWBERRY, The Associated Press
BODY:
Every day, Marcus Rush walks by the Byzantine architecture of the
Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Ala., where thousands of people once
started a 54-mile trek that would change the nation.
Every day, he passes the imposing granite monument on the church's
front sidewalk immortalizing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., another
reminder of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march that inspired passage of
the Voting Rights Act.
Still, amid 30th anniversary events and a commemorative march that
begins at the church Sunday, the 21-year-old who lives at a public
housing project across the street wonders what all the fuss is about.
Even such a momentous episode, guaranteeing blacks access to the
ballot booth in a region where they once were slaves, doesn't have much
relevance three decades later to a jobless black man.
"I don't know too much about it," Rush said. "That was before my
time."
As it was for Lee Marshall, 32, who calls the famous march "ancient
history."
"I'm just trying to make it in this world," Marshall said. "I'm just
trying to survive before this world comes to an end. It's almost there
with some of the things that are going on, the crime and drugs and all
that."
The troubles of the day were different on March 7, 1965, as hundreds
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of protesters set out from the Selma church, attempting to march to the
state Capitol in Montgomery for a voting rights demonstration.
Instead, they barely made it out of downtown Selma before getting
mauled at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge by a posse of lawmen. The
unforgiving use of billy clubs and tear gas provided one of the
grimmest, goriest spectacles of the civil-rights movement.
Two weeks after "Bloody Sunday" horrified the nation, King and
others led a second march authorized by a federal judge and protected by
thousands of federal troops.
Later that year, Congress approved the law that ensured blacks would
no longer be denied the right to vote through chicanery or intimidation
across the South.
"Of all the things that have happened in our lifetime, this is the
single most historic piece of legislation ever passed," said Joe
Smitherman, a white who was mayor then. Now, drawing a modicum of black
support, he's still mayor.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who suffered a blow
to the head on "Bloody Sunday," will be among those participating in
Sunday's ceremonies. The commemorative march begins at the church, goes
over the bridge again and culminates Saturday at the Alabama Capitol.
"This is a wonderful opportunity that has risen out of a very
painful event 30 years ago," said state Sen. Hank Sanders, a black
lawyer who stood with the white mayor at an anniversary event.
Sanders and Smitherman rattle off what they see as the signs of
Selma's progressiveness, most notably the shift of political power in a
county that's 58 percent black. In 1965, Dallas County didn't have a
single elected official who was black. Now, blacks hold the majority on
the City Council, as well as on the city and county school boards.
Still, like many U.S. cities, Selma is a town divided along racial
lines. Blacks and whites may chat amiably on a downtown street corner
during working hours, but public schools, churches, and the Elks Club,
among other things, remain segregated.
Rush speaks for those who see voting as a useless exercise.
"It ain't going to change too much," he said. "They still won't
bring no jobs in here."
"They don't really understand," said Rush's mother, Zola Myles, who
was 8 when the Selma-to-Montgomery march took place.
She remembers Viola Liuzza, a white homemaker from Detroit, stopping
by her home to help Myles mother register for a welfare program. The
next night, Liuzza was killed by Ku Klux Klansmen while she drove
demonstrators back to Selma.
"It still has meaning to me because I understand it," Myles said of
the civil-rights movement. "It means a lot more to older black people
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than the younger ones because they don't understand it.
"We're trying to teach them and tell them the meaning of it, but
they don't have that kind of concern .... They already have the
freedom to do pretty much anything they want to do."
GRAPHIC: 2 ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS 1 - State troopers using billy clubs and tear gas to break
up a march for equal voting rights in Selma, Ala., on "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965.
2 - Marcus Rush standing near the Selma, Ala., church where a civil-rights march 30 years ago
inspired passage of the Voting Rights Act.
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The Morning Call (Allentown), September 19, 1999
Copyright 1999 The Morning Call, Inc.
The Morning Call (Allentown)
September 19, 1999, Sunday, SECOND EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 3689 words
HEADLINE: UNREST BROUGHT BLACK VOTING RIGHTS
BYLINE: KEITH HERBERT; The Morning Call
BODY:
Joanne Bland has lived the history that surrounds her at the National Voting Rights Museum and
Institute, a three-story, red-canopied building that borders the Alabama River.
The state police surveillance photos that hang on the walls show marchers gathering outside Brown
Chapel AME Church, walking shoulder to shoulder across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, fleeing tear gas
unleashed by a blue fence of state troopers.
The photos capture some of the chaos that ensued here on the afternoon of March 7, 1965, the day a
march for voting rights for blacks in the Deep South turned into Bloody Sunday.
"First, I heard screams," said Bland, who was 11 when she joined the marchers, "then, what I
thought were gunshots. They were shooting the tear gas canisters, I learned from the footage.
"There was so much confusion. But then we started to run. People in front of us were being attacked.
We were falling over each other."
A nation saw the clash that day between the state police and marchers, as television crews and
photographers captured it. The contrast on the bridge -belligerent law enforcement officers beating
non-threatening church-goers seeking the right to vote -- was as clear as black and white.
It shocked the nation and angered President Lyndon Johnson.
"I would call it a key event in the final stages of the Southern civil rights movement," said Edward P.
Morgan, who teaches a class on the 1960s at Lehigh University. "That really triggered the Voting
Rights Act, the last piece of civil rights legislation."
Five months after Bloody Sunday, on Aug. 6, 1965, Johnson signed the law that eliminated barriers
that kept blacks in the South from voting. It was one defining moment in a decade of defining
moments.
From Dallas to Memphis to Los Angeles to Vietnam, the 1960s was a decade of bloodshed and tears.
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The sit-ins that began when four black college students refused to move from a whites-only counter
in a Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C., initiated a wave of protests in the South. In 1961,
Freedom Riders -- activists who rode buses throughout the South and attempted to integrate public
places-- were beaten and their bus was set on fire in Anniston, Ala.
In 1963, a bomb exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., killing four
choir girls. That year, authorities there turned their high-power fire hoses on protesters. Three civil
rights workers reported missing in 1964 in Mississippi turned up dead. The decade made youthful
men martyrs, with the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy and
Martin Luther King Jr.
And more than 58,000 Americans with less famous names died in Vietnam by the war's end.
Images of people arm in arm in the streets, singing freedom songs, are cemented in America's
collective memory, as well as scenes of people clashing with police and marching by the thousands
on Washington to fight for civil rights, and later, to oppose the unpopular Vietnam War.
Forging social change from civil unrest is symbolic of the decade.
"People acting together to empower themselves-- that's the inspiring part of it," Morgan said.
After Bloody Sunday, the next time Bland, executive director of the voting rights museum, walked
across the Edmund Pettus Bridge was in 1990, when the museum opened on the 25th anniversary of
the march. Memories and emotions overloaded her senses.
"The closer we got to the bridge, the harder my heart beat. When we crested the bridge, all of it
started coming back, the tear gas, everything," Bland said.
She can't watch news footage of Bloody Sunday, like that in the film "Eyes on the Prize," shown on a
large-screen television at the museum.
"I get mad, feel angry," Bland said. "It affects the way I deal with people, especially with non-African
American people. I become immediately defensive. It became, 'Oh, no, I'm not going to let you hurt
me again.' I knew that it was something I had to deal with.
"I've seen so much change," Bland said. "I know that after I'm gone, there will be more change.
What makes me sad is we're about to enter this new century and we still have these same ills. We go
from blatant racism to not acknowledging that racism still exists."
A RALLYING CRY
Events in Marion, Ala., in February 1965 set in motion the drama that would climax at the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma, 30 miles away.
There wouldn't have been a Bloody Sunday without Marion. And no Bloody Sunday, no voting rights
legislation, said Albert Turner, a civil rights activist who was helping to organize voter-registration
demonstrations there.
"I have no doubt in my mind, this was the spark," said Turner, now 63. "We would have never been
on that bridge.''
By 1965, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee had been organizing blacks for two years
in Marion, Perry County, and elsewhere in Alabama where blacks were the majority but virtually
nonexistent on voter rolls. Turner's job was to teach fellow blacks how to pass Alabama's literacy
test, a requirement for voting in local and national elections. For at least 10 years in Perry County,
blacks consistently failed the test, said Turner, now an elected Perry County commissioner.
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Changing the way blacks thought about voting was key to making them embrace civil unrest as a
vehicle for social change, he said. "We had got people to the point where they were ready to die
because we had convinced people that their every thing depended on the right to vote," he said.
On the night of Feb. 18, 1965, after a two-hour rally for voting rights at Zion Methodist Church in
Marion, 400 blacks prepared to leave for a march around the Perry County Courthouse. Most
marchers never got out of the church. The front of the line got as far as the courthouse across the
street, when it was met by state troopers and deputy sheriffs.
Police and others opposing the march shot out streetlights. Troopers beat newsmen, who had their
cameras destroyed or sprayed with black paint.
Marchers ran to a back door of the church for safety.
Jimmie Lee Jackson, 27, tried to carry his injured grandfather to a hospital from a cafe behind the
church. A trooper stopped him. His mother saw the scuffle and hit one of the troopers with a soda
bottle. The troopers knocked her out cold, Turner said.
"They picked Jimmie up and shoved him into the corner of the cafe, put the gun at his side and shot
him," he said.
Troopers grabbed Jackson and ran him toward the church, into a gauntlet of billy-club swingers.
"He got to the front of the church, he fell there," Turner said. "He was picked up and carried to the
hospital. He died a week later."
In the aftermath of the shooting, voting rights organizers had two concerns: They needed to ease the
tension of the marchers, and they needed to keep the momentum going for voting rights.
Lucy Foster, an older woman who opened her home to civil rights workers from out of town, had an
idea.
"She told ... us we ought to take his damn body to the Capitol and put his body on the steps, (Gov.)
George Wallace's steps. That's where the idea came from," Turner said. "We started talking, Dr.
(Martin Luther) King said, 'No, don't do that. All of us needed to go to Montgomery and protest."'
The day Jackson was buried, King delivered the eulogy at Zion Methodist Church. Drenched by
daylong rain, 1,500 to 2,000 mourners walked along Route 14 -- from the church to Hood Cemetery
outside Marion, where former slaves and Jackson's close relatives were buried. It rained so hard that
day that Turner's suit shrank on his body.
Today, the large granite headstone on top of Jackson's grave is riddled with more than a dozen bullet
holes.
Vandalism was so bad at one point about 10 years ago, the headstone was temporarily removed and
kept at Jackson's mother's home. The vandals just wouldn't let it stay up.
"We decided we wouldn't let it die, and they decided they had to kill him all over again," Turner said.
TENSION WAS BREWING
Annie Cooper worked in a Selma, Dallas County, nursing home when she joined the voting-rights
demonstrations. She attended prayer meetings at Brown Chapel and marched to the Dallas County
Courthouse to try to register to vote.
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The voting office was only open two days a month, but the marchers would go there daily and line up
to be registered. Inevitably, deputy sheriffs would order the crowd to disperse. The marchers would
refuse, claiming they had a right to register to vote, and were arrested.
After participating in one march, Cooper, who is black, received a call at home from her boss.
"They said I was fired and not to come to work," Cooper recalled. 'They said I had went down there
with them niggers and I wasn't needed any more."
Cooper, now 89, had earlier lived in the North, where blacks enjoyed the voting franchise. Cooper
was perplexed by the situation.
"I was in Cleveland, (Ohio) and everywhere I had been, they were paying you to vote," she said. "I
couldn't imagine down here that they didn't want you to vote."
Without a job, Cooper had little else to do but go to the courthouse every day and try to register.
Cooper became a legend on Jan. 25, 1965, when she stood up to, and knocked down, notorious
Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark.
After a prayer meeting at Brown Chapel, Cooper and other marchers led by King headed for the
courthouse.
Wilson Baker, Selma's public safety director, ordered the marchers from in front of the courthouse,
claiming they were blocking access. Demonstrators refused. When Baker began kicking a young
person with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Cooper came to the student's defense.
Clark grabbed Cooper.
"I said, 'Humph, ain't nobody afraid,"' Cooper said. The sheriff filled his hands with Cooper's coat,
which was draped over her shoulders, and tumbled to the ground.
"I told him don't jerk me like that," Cooper said.
Once back on his feet, Clark swung his billy club. Despite Cooper's "death grip" on the club, Clark
managed to strike a blow to the back of her neck.
"It kind of stung," Cooper said. "Then I went into him and started fighting."
One blow caused bleeding inside her mouth. Cooper was handcuffed and spent 11 hours in jail
without medical treatment.
The untreated wound caused a tumor at the base of her tongue, she said. Tests showed it was
malignant, and doctors in 1966 had to remove half of her tongue, giving her speech a lispy sound.
She prayed the cancer wouldn't return; it didn't.
"I'm a freedom fighter," said Cooper, whose picture hangs in the Voting Rights Museum. "I don't feel
like a celebrity. I say I'm just a child of God."
BLOODY SUNDAY
With Jackson's death, momentum built for a march from Selma, the center of many of the voting
rights demonstrations, to .the state capital to dramatize the blacks' struggle across the Deep South.
On March 7, 1965, hundreds of blacks gathered in Brown Chapel and debated whether to march 50
miles to Montgomery to petition Gov. Wallace. Leaders phoned Martin Luther King in Atlanta and got
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permission to march. About 500-strong left the church in the noonday sun to begin the trek across
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, along rolling Highway 80 and into Montgomery.
Among the marchers -- both white and black -- were Turner, John Lewis, now a congressman from
Alabama, and the Rev. Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Alliance.
It was a cool day.
Joanne Bland and her sister, Lynda Lowery, left the church together, but they became separated as
each girl looked for friends. Bland retreated into the line of marchers, and her sister moved forward.
The marchers made their way to the hump of the bridge, and looking over the downward slope, saw
Alabama state troopers and deputy sheriffs waiting at the end.
The marchers kept on going.
Sheyann Webb, 8, who was had beenskipping school to join the demonstrations, spotted the
troopers, on horseback and armed with tear gas, bull whips and billy clubs.
The look on the troopers' faces scared Webb the most.
"I saw bitterness, hatred, meanness," said the 43-year-old Webb. "Just faces of brutality."
The troopers told the marchers their assembly was unlawful and ordered them to return to their
church. The marchers sto?d there, some kneeling to pray.
The trooper line advanced, pushing back the marchers with billy clubs and unleashing tear gas.
Marchers began running back across the bridge. Chaos reigned.
Bland got as far as the middle of the bridge when the front of the line stopped. As people began
fleeing, falling over each other, Bland fainted.
When she woke she was in the back of a car, receiving treatment from a school nurse.
Lowery, her sister, was knocked unconscious and needed stitches.
Police knocked down Turner, but he was uninjured. A trooper hit Lewis in the head with a nightstick;
he was left lying there, bleeding, in a cloud of tear gas. Williams picked up Webb and tried to carry
her away from the advancing police. But Webb told him to put her down; she could run faster.
Sixty-five people were injured.
"That was like a massacre in a sense, when I reflect on it," said Webb. "People being treated like
dogs, not as human beings."
ANOTHER VIEW
Through windows of the Glass House restaurant, a flat-roof structure on Highway 80 at the slope of
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Henry Dunkin and Edward Prather can look over their shoulders and see
the spot where marchers and state troopers clashed.
To Dunkin and Prather, Bloody Sunday wasn't a big deal.
King was an outside agitator who brought a bunch of troublemakers to town in 1965, giving Selma a
bad name, they said.
At the restaurant, where the breakfast special includes two eggs any style, bacon, sausage or
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bologna, grits and toast or a biscuit for$ 2.38, these regulars don't give Bloody Sunday as much
significance as it gets in history books.
"I was here at the Glass House the day they started coming across the bridge," Dunkin said. "We all
got up and went outside to watch the activities. Back then, it was no big sensational thing."
"It was just another day," said Prather, a postman, in uniform, pipe clenched between teeth.
Dunkin, in a plaid shirt, smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee, pointed to a sign near the highway
where he stood and watched as the marchers met the troopers.
"Martin Luther King, he would come in and stir it up and leave," said Dunkin, who added that if the
slain civil rights leader were alive today, "he should be hanged."
The men, both white, defended their state's then voter-registration tests, made illegal by the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, despite that they kept all but 1 percent of Dallas County's black residents from
the voting rolls. The tests, they said, were valuable for preventing voter fraud.
"If you can't read and write, I can take you up there and say, Who you want to vote for? George
Wallace? And I write Joe Blow. If you can't read and write, there's nothing you can do about it," said
Prather, then a national guardsman who went on to protect the demonstrators along Highway 80.
Dunkin said he too had to take the voter-registration test. "I was lucky enough to pass it," he said. It
wasn't easy, and it took some people two or three times before they passed. You had to know
"something about history, and Alabama history."
Events on the bridge, and the social changes that followed, improved conditions for blacks, but
relationships between blacks and whites have brimmed with tension, he said.
"After the march, a lot of people didn't trust each other," Dunkin said. "I'd say the relations haven't
got any better."
Glass House owner June Carter, also white, disagrees. Carter was embarrassed about the opinions
Duncan voiced on King and the march inside her restaurant.
"People like him will forever make us look bad," Carter said.
A NATION WATCHES
After Bloody Sunday, voting rights organizers kept the pressure on.
King led a second Montgomery-bound march two days later, having asked out-of-town clergy to help.
Police again blocked the marchers' path at the foot of the bridge; a federal court order prevented
marchers from continuing. King turned the marchers around after they knelt and prayed on what
came to be known as Turn Around Tuesday.
One of the clergy who had responded to King's nationwide call for assistance was James Reeb, a
Unitarian minister from Boston. After the march, Reeb and two dinner companions were attacked by
four white men as they walked past the Silver Moon Cafe, a Selma bar known to have segregationist
patrons. Reeb, who was hit in the head with a pipe, was hospitalized and died two days later.
President Johnson demanded that Gov. Wallace protect the marchers, going on television to
announce his plans to introduce voting-rights legislation before Congress.
Borrowing a rallying cry from the civil rights marchers, Johnson said: "Their cause must be our
cause, too. And we shall overcome."
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On March 17, 1965, federal Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. issued an injunction protecting marchers to
Montgomery from interference by state officials.
On March 21, the Selma-to-Montgomery march began, again at Brown Chapel. Led by King, about
3,000 people spilled across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This time, federalized guardsmen lined the
streets, guarding their way.
In all, the march would take five days along the meandering, rural highway, parts of which were
·
unpaved.
The marchers covered 7.3 miles the first day and camped on black-owned land. Many later turned
back, in compliance with the federal court order, as the road narrowed to two lanes.
On Day 2 of the march, about 300 people covered 16 miles through Lowndes County. Hot, weary and
hungry, marchers set up camp on land owned by Gardinia White's grandmother, Rosie Steele. The
marchers again used black-owned land for campgrounds, because white landowners refused to allow
them to use their land.
"I was out there looking at them coming over the hill," said White, who still lives in Lowndes County.
"That was the most beautiful sight I ever seen, seeing all those people coming down over that hill. It
was just a beautiful sight, seeing all those people coming together to make things better for
everybody."
It was early evening. The marchers washed and ate inside White's grandmother's home, and cleaned
out the shelves of her grandfather's small grocery store. National guardsmen were there.
"We stay up three days and three nights cooking food," said White, now 70, who has eight children
and 30-plus grandchildren. "I fried every egg. We had sold out everything that was there that was
edible."
To restock the store shelves, Roosevelt Steele, White's grandfather, made several trips to Selma.
White recalled King's helicopter landing on a spot where a relative has since built a home. (King left
the march for a day to give a speech in Ohio.)
She also recalled talking with another marcher: Viola Luizzo, a white Detroit homemaker. "She
stayed around about here," White said.
"I had a baby at the time. That morning before she left, she washed my baby up and fed her .... She
was a very pleasant lady. She was quite the talker, everybody knew her. To me, she was just happy
to be a part of it."
Luizzo was killed days later by Ku Klux Klan members as she drove back to Montgomery after taking
marchers to Selma.
When the marchers left White's grandmother's land, White joined them. Despite a torrential rain,
they went another 16 miles before camping again in Lowndes County.
On the fourth day of the march, they reached a point that was 1.7 miles inside Montgomery, staying
at the City of St. Jude, a Catholic hospital used predominantly by blacks. More than 10,000 people
arrived to join them in the last leg of their journey.
On March 25, King was there to lead them into the state capital. Now the crowd swelled to 25,000
and was peppered with celebrities, among them Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr., Dick
Gregory and Joan Baez.
At the base of the Capitol's marble steps, virtually on the same spot where Jefferson Davis was
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inaugurated as president of the Confederacy in 1861, King addressed a sea of supporters.
"We are on the move now," King said. "The burning of our churches will not deter us. We are on the
move now. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. We are on the move now. The beating
and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. We are on the move now."
Photographer Spider Martin, well known for his civil rights photos, shared a fried chicken lunch with
Baez under the podium.
"It comes down to what (King) said right there," said Martin, pointing to the Capitol steps. "I believe
this march will go down as one of the greatest struggles for freedom and dignity in the nation's
history."
***********************************
Today, the Edmund Pettus Bridge stands as a symbol of contemporary struggles for human dignity.
On a recent summer day, just after 10 a.m. -- before the Alabama sun reached its apex --teen-agers
visiting from Houston wore T-shirts that read: "Racism is an illness. Are you sick?" and gathered in
front of the voting-rights museum on Selma's Walter Avenue. The air was still, and the humidity felt
like a second skin.
The teens prepared to trace the steps of the men and women they'd read about in history books, and
whose faces they saw in photographs on the museum walls.
They piled past Brown Chapel and stomped across the bridge in a Dallas County that differs
significantly in at least one way from 1965. Today, blacks comprise 60 percent of Dallas County's
registered, active voters. In Perry County, where Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed, 85 percent of blacks
are registered to vote.
Said group chaperon Deloyd Parker: "We want them to say they actually walked in the footprints of
John Lewis and Dr. King."
***********************************
Next month: Watergate
GRAPHIC: 3 PHOTOS by FRANK WIESE, The Morning Call CAPTION: Walter Milo, 13, (right) and
Jerry Brown, 16, reflect after participating in the re-enactment march over the Edmund pettus
Bridge. CAPTION: Highway 80 represents the route of the Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting
rights in 1965. CAPTION: Teens are greeting by honks of support as they walk through Selma to
re-enact the 1965 march. 2 PHOTOS by FRANK WIESE, The Morning Call and AP CAPTION: At left,
youngsters from the surrounding projects watch a youth group swarm around Brown Chapel in
Selma. The chapel was the starting point of the 1965 march. Above, Martin Luther King Jr. leads
marchers across the Alabama River on March 21, 1965, on the first day of a five-day march to
Montgomery. 9 PHOTOS by FRANK WIESE, The Morning Call CAPTION: Grand and
great-grandchildren lean on Gardenia White. Her grandmother, Rosie Steele, hosted the voting rights
marchers. CAPTION: Today, Joanne Bland tells visitors to the Voting Rights Museum about the March
7, 1965 march in which she participated. CAPTION: The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a symbol of
comtemporary struggles for human dignity. Marchers met resistance there in 1965 CAPTION: Hands
connect generations as Tierria Robinson, 4, participates in a prayer circle July 25, 1999 in First
Baptist Church in Selma. The church was a safe haven for voting rights marchers in the 1960s.
CAPTION: At left, Warden Bobby Effinger oversees the prison at the Selma Police Station. He was
involved in the struggled for voting rights outside Brown Chapel. The prison became filled with
protesters in 1965. Above, Albert Turner points to the bullet holds in the gravestone of Jimmie Lee
Jackson. Turner led the night march in Marion during which Jackson was fatally shot by state
troopers. The stone has been shot several times over the years by extremists. CAPTION: Andrew
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Mezvinsky and Keisha Salters cross the bridge as part of a group working to repair Jewish-African
American relations. CAPTION: At far left, Henry Dunkin, 64, (left) and postman Edward Prather talk
during breakfast in the Glass House, a Selma diner. Dunkin witnessed Bloody Sunday. At left, John
Rudolph, 60, at Billy's Tire along Route 80 recalls that he returned from serving in Vietnam but was
not permitted to vote in his own country. The march passed the location. GRAPHIC by UNKNOWN (13
photos) CAPTION: Through the Years 1960: Sit-ins begin when four African-American college
students refuse to move from whites-only counter in Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C. United
States launches first weather satellite, Tiros I. U-2, U.S. spy plane, shot down over Soviet Union and
leads to cancellation of Paris summit. United States announces backing of right-wing group in Laos.
Sen. John F. Kennedy, Democrat, elected president over Republican Vice President Richard Nixon.
Mobs attack U.S. embassy in Panama over dispute about flying U.S. and Panama flags. 1961:
U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba at Bay of Pigs fails, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first man
to orbit Earth. Alan Shephard, astronaut, becomes first American in space. President Kennedy orders
resuming of atomic testing after Soviet tests resume. Writer Ernest Hemingway kills himself in Idaho.
Pulitzer Prize awarded to Harper Lee for "To Kill a Mockingbird." 1962: African-American baseball
player Jackie Robinson elected to Baseball Hall of Fame. John H. Glenn becomes first American to
orbit Earth. James Meredith becomes first African-American to attend University of Mississippi after
3,000 federal troops put down riots. U.S. and Soviet Union go to brink of nuclear war over Soviet
missiles in Cuba. Richard Nixon is defeated in race for governor of California. Tells press, "you won't
have Nixon to kick around anymore." Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" launches environmental
movement. 1963: In Gideon v. Wainwright, U.S. Supreme Court rules that all indigent defendants
are entitled to court-appointed legal counsel in criminal cases. Civil rights march led by Martin Luther
King Jr. brings 200,000 to Washington, D.C., where he makes his "I Have A Dream" speech. U.S.,
Soviet Union and Britain sign limited nuclear test ban treaty. William Faulkner wins Pulitzer prize in
fiction. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam assassinated in coup. JFK assassinated in Dallas,
Texas; Vice President Lyndon Johnson assumes office. 1964: Omnibus civil rights bill passes,
banning discrimination in voting, jobs, public accommodations, etc. Three civil rights workers
reported missing in Mississippi. Warren Commission issues report naming Lee Harvey Oswald sole
assassin of JFK. Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution to support action against North Vietnam
after reported attack on two U.S. destroyers. British rock group The Beatles arrives in New York and
appears on Ed Sullivan television show. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur dies. 1965: World's
tallest monument, 630-foot Gateway Arch, opens in St. Louis. Power failure strikes Northeast U.S.,
blacks out seven states and Ontario for two days. U.S. goes on offensive in Vietnam with bombing,
troops; u:s. forces reach 184,300 by year's end. Rioting kills 34 in Watts African-American
neighborhood of Los Angeles. Writer Alan Ginsburg coins term "Flower Power" at anti-war rally. Lorna
Elizabeth Lockwood of Arizona becomes first woman named chief justice of a state supreme court.
1966: James Meredith, first African-American to graduate from the University of Mississippi, is shot
in the back while taking part in civil rights march. After colliding with jet fueler, a B-52 bomber
armed with four hydrogen bombs crashes in sea off Palomares, Spain. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wins
National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for book on Kennedy administration, "A Thousand Days."
Bombing of Hanoi by U.S. planes begins. By year's end, 385,000 U.S. troops are stationed in
Vietnam. White mobs assault African-American children and their parents at newly integrated schools
in Grenada, Miss .. Ronald Reagan defeats Edmund Brown for governor of California. 1967: Three
astronauts are killed when a flash fire sweeps their Apollo space capsule. Senate approves
appointment of Thurgood Marshall as first African-American on Supreme Court. Jury convicts 11 of
18 in 1964 slaying of civil rights workers in Mississippi. Riots in African-American neighborhoods in
Newark, N.J., and Detroit, Mich., leave at least 70 dead and many homeless. Anti-war protests
escalate; 475,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam by year's end. Stanford University biochemists announce
they have successfully synthesized DNA. 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
Robert F. Kennedy, brother of JFK, assassinated in Los Angeles while running for president.
Communists launch Tet offensive, attack Saigon, 30 provincial capitals. Police and students clash at
Democratic national convention in Chicago. Shirley Chisolm becomes first African-American woman
elected to Congress. Republican Richard Nixon is elected president, defeating Democratic Vice
President Hubert Humphrey. 1969: U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on
moon. Police raid in New York on Stonewall gay bar meets resistance, sparks gay-rights movement.
Nixon begins Vietnamization to turn war over to South Vietnam's troops. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
general and former president, dies. Anti-Vietnam war protest reaches peak as 250,000 march on
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Washington. White House press secretary Ron Ziegler coins the term "photo-opportunity."
Woodstock, N.Y., music festival is held. GRAPHIC by UNKNOWN (1 photo) Sources:"The Great Song
Thesaurus," The Morning Call, Encyclopaedia of Fashion. RESEARCH by DIANNE KNAUSS, The
Morning Call CAPTION: LIVING IN THE 1960s Hottest Fashion Women experimented with skirt
lengths, which meant minis, midis, and maxis were all part of the fashion scene. Summer Fun
Hibachi grills. $ 5.99 --At Hess's, Allentown Zoorama
"See the Hippo ... Free"
"See the Polar Bear ... Free"
--At Dorney Park, "The Natural Spot," South Whitehall Township. "Direct from New York" Joe
Quijano and his Conjunto Cachana --At the American-Mexican Azteca Society, Bethlehem On the
Road Datsun 1966 four-door sedan, fully equipped. $ 1,666 --At Rothrock Motor Sales, Fullerton '66
T-Bird hardtop. Full power, air conditioned. $ 4,249 At Bethlehem Suburban Ford Pocket Notes Food
Louella butter bread, white or wheat 10-lb. loaf: 29 cents -- Available at Acme Markets, Allentown
Large-size eggs: 53 cents/dozen --Available at A&P, Allentown Virginia baked hams: 99 cents/lb. -Available at the Mohican Market, Allentown. Houses for Sale Three-bedroom ranch in West End of
Allentown. Spacious living room with stone fireplace, formal dining room, mahogany-paneled family
room, two baths, two-car garage. $ 32,400 Four-bedroom, three-story brick home in Coopersburg.
Three-car garage. Tastefully landscaped 1 1/2 acres. $ 26,500 Clothing Boy's short-sleeved cotton
knit shirts: $ 1.99 Big and little girls' tennis dresses, shifts: $ 1.99 --At Hess's, Allentown Men's
suits: $ 40 to $ 70 -- At Leh & Co., Allentown Furniture Seven-piece colonial maple dining room
suite. $ 163 -- At Levitz, Whitehall Township 21-inch, console color TV "Enjoy Color So Natural It's
Like Having a Box Seat at Every Game" $ 399 -- At Sears, Allentown Top Songs "I Want to Hold Your
Hand," "Yesterday," "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Hey Jude," by The Beatles. "(I
Can't Get No) Satisfaction," by The Rolling Stones, led by Mick Jagger. At the Movies Walt Disney's
"Mary Poppins" starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke Tickets: Adults, $ 1 to$ 1.25; children, 50
cents --At the Rialto, Allentown "Do Not Disturb" starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor Tickets: adults,
75 cents; children, free-- At Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre, North Whitehall Township. Rogers and
Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" Tickets:$ 2.25 to$ 2.50; Matinee,$ 1.75 to$ 2 --At the Boyd
Theatre, Allentown What people were reading "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann "In Cold
Blood" by Truman Capote "Human Sexual Response" by Masters & Johnson "Unsafe At Any Speed" by
Ralph Nader
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The Ethnic NewsWatch, March 31, 1995
Copyright 1995 SOFTLINE INFORMATION, INC.
The Ethnic NewsWatch
Emerge
March 31, 1995
SECTION: Vol. 6; No. 5; Pg. 44
LENGTH: 702 words
HEADLINE: CIVIL RIGHTS: REPORT CARD
BYLINE: Peoples, Betsy
BODY:
CIVIL RIGHTS: REPORT CARD.
This is the first of what will become Emerge's annual compilation of votes in Ccongress on key issues
affecting African-Americans.
Civil rights issues will face increased scrutiny, now that conservative Republicans have taken over
the House and Senate for the first time in four decades. The 103rd United States Congress (1993-94)
fared well on civil rights issues but civil rights leaders are apprehensive about what could come
next.
"You need to measure people by deeds, not words," say Laura Murphy Lee, director of the
Washington, D. C., office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
When civil rights were threatened by the Reagan and Bush administrations, activists knew they
could turn to Congress. Now, they aren't too sure.
"People have to make certain that we lose no ground in the protection of our right-to vote," says
Wade Henderson, director of the Washington bureau of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP). "Most importantly, Black people have to register to vote. There has to be
an ongoing aggressive campaign for voter participation."
Many activists feared Ronald Reagan's efforts to dismantle civil rights.
"When that happened 15 years ago, people in the civil rights community had to regroup and create
bipartisan strategies," says Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, a coalition of 180 national organizations representing women, persons with disabilities,
labor, religious groups and older Americans. Over the objection of the White House, Congress passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Restoration Act,
the 1982 Voting Rights Act Extension, Japanese-American Redress Bill, South African sanctions
legislation, and the Fair Housing Act Amendments of 1988.
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"In looking over the last 30 years, all of the civil rights laws add up to a second of the civil rights
laws add up to a second American Revolution in which many of the dreams embodied in our
Constitution have been given some measure of reality," Neas says. "Literally millions of Americans
have been given an equal opportunity in voting, employment, education and housing. But there is
also no question that we have a long way to go."
Ironically, Neas' observation that we have "a long way to go" comes exactly 30 years after the
famous Selma-to-Montgomery March led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee Chairman John Lewis. Instead of facing Gov. George C. Wallace's state
troopers, today's assault has come in the form of legal challenges, such as Shaw v. Reno.
In Shaw, the 1993 North Carolina case that has challenged redistricting law, the U.S. Supreme Court
left a gray area in respect to racial considerations in drawing up new districts. Now, several other
lawsuits are challenging majority-Black congressional district seats that were created as a result of
remapping for increased Black representation in Congress.
"It's no question that the poor as a group came out of the 1980s worse off than they came out of the
1970s, that's a tragedy," says Neas.
"I would hope with every passing day, month and year, the consensus in Congress, the civil rights
community and across the nation is to address the economic opportunity issues and not reopen these
civil rights issues that have been settled for a long time."
NAACP officials consider those senators and representatives with grades of 70 percent or better as
"special friends" of the organization. Those with the worst record, less than 60 percent, include 40
senators and 206 representatives from both political parties.
What can people expect from the 104th congress?
"Subtle racism in the form of dismantling existing civil rights laws," says Lee. "They're too smart to
say this is an anti-civil rights proposal."
"This isn't about a balanced federal budget or cutting back on entitlement spending," says Lee.
"This is about continued disenfranchisement of groups of people based on their class, race and
gender. We are not dealing with police dogs and fire hoses," Lee explains. "We're dealing with much
more subtle exclusionary practices."
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The Associated Press, March 6, 1995
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be
republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
March 6, 1995, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 639 words
HEADLINE: SELMA: 30 Years After "Bloody Sunday" ...
BYLINE: By PAUL NEWBERRY, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: SELMA, Ala.
BODY:
John Lewis was locked arm- in-arm with other veterans of the civil rights movement, marching,
singing and chanting in a scene straight out of the 1960s.
Suddenly, the Georgia Democrat dropped from the line and wandered over to the side of the road to
chat with some Alabama state troopers, members of the same force that clubbed him unconscious 30
years ago.
"You didn't have any blacks who were state troopers in 1965," said Lewis, recalling the all-white
posse who took part in the "Bloody Sunday" mauling at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an event that
turned the tide of the civil rights movement.
Lewis, an Alabama native who now represents a congressional district in Atlanta, returned to this city
on the banks of the Alabama River with Caretta Scott King, Southern Christian Leadership
Conference president Joseph Lowery, Jesse Jackson and three other black congressmen to mark the
anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
About 2,000 people walked across the bridge Sunday, and 100 were continuing today on a weeklong,
54-mile trek to Montgomery, where a rally is scheduled Saturday on the steps of the Alabama
Capitol.
Lewis was a leader of the original march on March 7, 1965, the one that was turned back at the
Selma bridge by state troopers and other lawmen who plunged into the crowd with billy clubs and
tear gas.
"I thought I was going to die," Lewis recalled.
He was knocked unconscious and to this day doesn't remember being carried back across the bridge
to the Brown Chapel AME Church, where the march originated. Once he regained his senses, he
1 of 3
3/1/2000 8:46AM
�S~rch- 1'~ Results- Selma to montgomer. .. and anniversary and at! 3\\i¢\.iw~I5Jfhttp:!/www.Iexis.com/resear ... Wk&_md5=d34478e38bdb9271cc302b9553d589t
remembers telling the crowd something to the effect:
"I don't understand how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam but he can't send troops to
Selma to protect people whose only desire is to register and vote."
As it turned out, the gory spectacle shocked the nation and prompted Johnson to send federal troops
to protect a second, larger march two weeks later. Led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., this one
proceeded all the way to Montgomery; a few months later, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
Selma is still a landmark city in the civil rights crusade, but things have changed. This time,
marchers were escorted by a convoy of patrol cars, blue lights flashing on the gray, drizzly afternoon.
"It's gratifying to come back and see all the changes that have occurred," Lewis said. "To see the
number of registered voters and the number of black elected officials in the state of Alabama. To be
able to walk with other members of Congress that are African-American."
The march also was a call to arms against the Republican-controlled Congress, which has threatened
to dismantle legislation responsible for changes many blacks hold dear, such as affirmative action,
welfare, "motor voter" registration and congressional redistricting to elect more blacks.
Lowery estimated that only 30 percent of eligible blacks voted in November, opening the door for
Republicans to seize control of both chambers for the first time in 40 years.
"We've got to continue with our struggle," said James Armstrong, a 71-year-old barber from
Birmingham who carried an American flag in front of the other marchers. "The voters let us down last
time·: This means a lot to me now because the voters didn't come out like they should have."
But Selma Mayor Joe Smitherman chastised the civil rights leaders.
Smitherman - a white segregationist in 1965 who later denounced race laws and continues to hold
office in a city that is majority black - said they should have been out in force long before the
election.
"You've gone to sleep," he told the largely black crowd in the Brown Chapel sanctuary before the
march. "Many of the people sitting right in this room, black leaders, are just as responsible for the
Republican turnaround as anyone.
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Terry Edmonds
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Date
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1995-2001
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36090" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
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2006-0462-F
Description
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Terry Edmonds worked as a speechwriter from 1995-2001. He became the Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting in 1999. His speechwriting focused on domestic topics such as race relations, veterans issues, education, paralympics, gun control, youth, and senior citizens. He also contributed to the President’s State of the Union speeches, radio addresses, commencement speeches, and special dinners and events. The records include speeches, letters, memorandum, schedules, reports, articles, and clippings.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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635 folders in 52 boxes
Text
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Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Selma 3/5/00 [2]
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
James (Terry) Edmonds
Identifier
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2006-0462-F
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 6
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0462-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763294" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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12/9/2014
Source
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42-t-7763294-20060462F-006-004-2014
7763294