Selma 60th: A Love Letter To Alabama

Source: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / Getty

Dear aunt Selma, 

It was so good seeing you and other family members this past weekend down in Alabama. My daddy would’ve been so happy. I know he smiled really big on Saturday morning. Speaking of mornings, I enjoyed breakfast with all your classmates at the Annual Foot Soldiers Breakfast held at Selma High School. Oh, I just laughed and listened the whole time. Mrs. Givan shared those stories of how y’all used to just walk out of class while watching your little brother leading the packs to Brown Temple Church for those mass meetings. Mrs. Chisom also taught me about Mr. Charles Maulin, a local organizer before Bloody Sunday who trained his classmates and other youth on what to expect from the movement. And I was so honored that they trusted me to share your stories with TVOne, which will be airing soon. 

Before coming down to see you this time last, I only knew of Bloody Sunday through the eyes of integrated schools and HBCUs with white racist professors.

Speaking of HBCUs, I never knew that you were a foot soldier on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday. What’s even crazier is the fact that you were just 12 years old that day on the bridge.

Fading pictures documented by the Alabama State University Professor and Founder of Highway80.org documenting the work leading up to and through Bloody Sunday Dr. Robert White. 

And some of y’all R.B. Hudson High (the city of Selma’s first public high school for African Americans that was completed in 1949) graduates were just full of life, ideas and good energy. Or like y’all say, “a blessing to be around with” kind of folks. 

Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty

Well, I know that the highlight of your day was having breakfast with Maxim Waters and Martin Luther King III because you couldn’t stop talking about it. And you were right, it was a good 10,000 people crossing that bridge. It seemed like it never stopped coming over that hill. I can’t believe that Miss Annie Pearl still goes over that bridge to this day after being the only Black woman arrested on Bloody Sunday.

After all our people have been through on that bridge, the least they can do is rename the bridge named after a Klan member to Foot Soldiers Bridge or something more fitting, you know?

I am just sending you love and light through a letter since your phone doesn’t work that well after those tornadoes a few years back. And say hello to your classmates. Just send my love to everyone down in little Selma, Alabama. From the ones who are still with us to the ones taken too soon. To the ones still in Dallas, Lowndes and Perry County fighting the good fight with our people towards Black power from Tuskegee to the George Washington Carver Public Houses. I see you, and now, the world will see our struggle and triumphs together. 

Source: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / Getty

Too bad there isn’t a national movement organizing the Black grassroots to the grass tops like SNCC and SCLC did in Alabama in the 1960s under Ella Baker. It really is a shame. 

Maybe you’re right aunt Selma, maybe I should dust off my organizing hat and do a little something more about it. 

P.S. Tell Damien he owes me a plate from the best spot in Alabama when I get back.

Love You More,

Tory Russell is a Ferguson Uprising organizer, internationally recognized Black movement leader, speaker and political strategist. He currently serves as the Director of Organizing at the International Black Freedom Alliance. He has previously written and created content for NewsOne, such as iOne Digital’s groundbreaking podcast series, “Witness to History: Ferguson 10. He has previously been seen on and contributed to media outlets like Ebony, Essence, BET, Revolt TV, Black Agenda Report, CNN, MSNBC and many others globally.

SEE ALSO:

The Fight’s Not Over: We Walked Edmund Pettus Bridge 60 Years After Bloody Sunday

‘Bloody Sunday’: Commemorating The Selma To Montgomery Marches From 59 Years Ago