More than 61,000 people made their way to Selma, Ala., to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday on March 8. I was one of them. I wanted to be there to recognize that historic moment in 1965 that resulted in voting rights for all in the United States. It was a moment that I’ll not soon forget.
As I was returning from having crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I heard a call to make way for a 1965 participant who was in a wheelchair. I flung my arms open and started to make my way through the pressing crowd to usher this elder, this African-American stateswoman, across the bridge. What an amazing honor to serve for a moment this great woman of faith who had already served me and our nation 50 years ago. She soon offered her thanks. I told her that all the thanks go to her and people like her.
People like me and my children to have a better quality of life today because of the bridges crossed by Ruby Shuttlesworth and 1965 foot soldiers. The problem: We have more rivers to cross, and therefore more bridges to build.
Unfortunately, African-American women still struggle to put food on the table and still live in poverty. Hunger and poverty are still putting more and more African-American women and children at risk of poor nutrition. A principal cause of hunger is the high costs of nutritious food. Economic empowerment must be a priority.
Our Bread for the World Hunger Report can be found at hungerreport.org. It informs us of the following:
- More than one in three African-American children live in poverty. One in five children in our nation as a whole live in poverty.
- Nearly half of African-American households headed by a single mother live in poverty. Over forty two percent of all U.S. single-mother households live in poverty.
- One in four African-American households struggled to put food on the table in 2010.
- Thirty two percent of African-American households with children were food-insecure. Twenty percent of all U.S. households with children were food-insecure.
Your leadership is needed to ensure that our children are fed. Please pray with Bread to end hunger. Conduct an Offering of Letters to support child nutrition, and urge Congress to re-authorize the child nutrition act this year. Go to bread.org/ol to learn more.
Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith is Bread for the World’s national senior associate for African-American and African church engagement.
