Reflecting back on my elementary school experience as a third grader, was the only time I truly remember learning Black History. Of course, very few teachers sent home coloring and activity sheets with prominent Black History leaders on them or facts, but that was before I met my first African-American teacher. She drilled Black leadership and Black significance into my third grade class, and this is where I remember absorbing a tiny piece of history related to Selma, Ala.
Overtime I grasped the concept of what “Bloody Sunday” truly was about through my own independent learning, so when the movie “Selma” hit the big screen in select cities in late 2014, I became curious. Sure I’d seen other civil rights films, but I wondered “What would make this one different?”
After now seeing the movie three times due to inviting friends to see the film, my anticipation grew to finally have the soles of my shoes touch the Edmund Pettus bridge. Once we arrived to Selma for the first time to see President Barack Obama, my body became covered in goose bumps as I stared off into foresight admiring the bridge as he spoke. But after hearing the march would be held on Sunday afternoon, the time we were scheduled to leave for Indianapolis, I was upset.
The following morning we decided to risk driving in the wee hours of morning, to make sure we crossed that bridge. We arrived at the pit of the bridge, also where the Alabama State troopers stood during “Bloody Sunday” with hundreds of others waiting to cross. As we began to walk across, we were met by hundreds of others crossing from the other side and walking toward us. “It was never explained which side of the bridge the march would begin on” is what I thought to myself. We decided to walk over the bridge, and we met thousands of others waiting to cross on the opposite side.
I became somewhat angry when I witnessed, police officers asking participants to stay off of the street and on the sidewalk before the march began. Many people ignored the officers and risked their safety instead. I was also bothered by the fact that many groups were somewhat “fighting” to lead the march. As I watched organization after organization continue to move past one another to be seen as the “leader” of the march, it left a bad taste in my mouth. It made me feel as if we were missing the point of what the occasion and the bridge truly stood for.
It was great to see thousands of groups and individuals present and no matter what they were marching for, whether it be voting rights, LGBTQ rights, religious rights, I admired them. I admired them because they were from different nationalities and representing various cities across of America, but there was clearly a disconnect between those groups.
In 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other marchers focused on one common goal, which created an unbreakable bond. Today, however we have the pleasure of demonstrating our rights for many platforms. To see people from all walks of life physically come together advocating for their personal agendas is nothing short of remarkable.
Nevertheless, we have to take it a step forward. Coming together physically will not tip the iceberg, nor will it cancel senate bills that take away civil rights, nor will it protect the people of our country. We have to not only come together physically but truly and deeply understand the issues the person next to us are facing to grasp a better perspective of how to solve America’s issues.
I challenge each person, no matter race, religious belief or social economic class, to get to know your neighbor because our problems cannot be solved without understanding the goals and inner fight each one of us has burning inside. The marchers from Selma to Montgomery understood one another’s intentions, and now it’s time for us to do the same.
In the words of Elisabeth Omilami, the daughter of late civil rights activist Hosea Williams, “America is a young country. It is like a teenager and she has a lot to learn. I hope that she can listen to the people and know that ‘In God We Trust’ is not just something we throw away.”
