Earlier this week, my wife and I voted in this year’s national election. The process of early voting at our polling place in Virginia was quick and easy. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. Yet 61 years ago during the first week of October, it was a different story in Selma, AL. Most people remember Selma as the site of the infamous “Bloody Sunday” attack by state and local law enforcement on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.
But before “Bloody Sunday” in 1965 there was “Freedom Day” in Selma on October 7, 1963 when several hundred Black people attempted to register to vote. At that time, less than 1% of Black citizens were registered to vote in Dallas County that was 58% Black. The Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) and the Dallas County Voters’ League (DCVL) organized local residents to challenge unfair voter registration practices aimed at Black people. State and local officials in charge of voter registration intentionally slowed down the process to a crawl so that very few people even got into the registrar’s office while hundreds stood in line for hours. Those in line were not allowed to leave the line for food, water, or to use the bathroom. When some organizers attempted to bring food and water to those in line, they were beaten and shocked with cattle prods by local sheriff’s deputies under the direction of Sheriff Jim Clark and Alabama State Troopers. These same law enforcement agencies would go on to inflict the horrendous violence caught on film at the Edmund Pettis Bridge on “Bloody Sunday.”
As I reflect on the ease of the voting process I experienced earlier this week, I want to remember the price paid by those who endured “Freedom Day” in Selma 61 years ago this month along with thousands of others in localities throughout the South who paid the price for our voting rights today. The video posted below provides a short glimpse into “Freedom Day” in Selma. Any contemporary forms of voter suppression dishonor the commitment and memory of those who put their lives on the line so that we can vote this fall.