Alabama “What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. The new leadership in Selma did little and even stole money from the campaign. All rights reserved. As a result of poor student performance, a state team has taken over day-to-day operation of the public schools headed by acting Superintendent Larry DiChiara, who is White. The city council members are: Corey D. Bowie, City Council President; Carl Bowline, Ward 1; Susan M. Keith, Ward 2; Miah Tolbert-Jackson, Ward 3; Angela Benjamin, Ward 4; Samuel L. Randolph, Ward 5; Johnnie Leashore, Ward 6; Jannie Thomas, Ward 7; Michael Johnson, Ward 8. Selma became the seat of Dallas County in 1866 and the county courthouse was built there. Anonymous. Selma has four private K–12 schools: John T. Morgan Academy, founded in 1965, Meadowview Christian School, Ellwood Christian Academy, and Cathedral Christian Academy. Selma, AL Directions {{::location.tagLine.value.text}} Sponsored Topics. Even boosters like state house speaker Mike Hubbard concede Alabama ranks in the bottom half of the states in student performance by every measure including 44th in overall K-12 student achievement. Ralph Abernathy, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Greek Orthodox Father Iakovos (later Archbishop Iakovos of America) and Roman Catholic nuns. Both Long and Upton had positioned significant numbers of troops in their rear for just such an event. Altogether Wilson had 9,000 troops available for the assault. Selma boasts the state's largest contiguous historic district, with more than 1,250 structures identified as contributing. [5], During the Civil War, Selma was one of the South's main military manufacturing centers, producing many supplies and munitions, and building Confederate warships such as the ironclad Tennessee. helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South, and the need for a Voting Rights Act, passed later that year. Defying intimidation, economic retaliation, arrests, firings and beatings, an ever-increasing number of Dallas County blacks tried to register to vote, but few were able to do so under the subjective system administered by whites. In modern times, the city is best known for the 1960s civil rights movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches, beginning with "Bloody Sunday" in 1965 and ending with 25,000 people entering Montgomery at the end of the last march to press for voting rights. The city and rural region have struggled economically, as agriculture does not provide enough jobs. King recognized the divisions within the movement as well as continuing desperation in the African American community in a 1967 speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, "Where Do We Go from Here?". White families in Selma, and some of the more affluent Black families, send their children to the better performing Meadowview Christian School where the student population is over 90% White. The Mayor of Selma, George Patrick Evans, is African American, as is the City Council president, seven of the ten members of the City Council, the Chief of Police, and all five members of the school board. It was also an important armaments-manufacturing and iron shipbuilding center for the Confederacy during the Civil War, surrounded by miles of earthen fortifications. When I ask, "What happened in Selma?," I am really asking what has happened since the events portrayed in the movie and what happened to the struggle for civil rights and social justice in the United States that seemed so promising in 1965. Although director DuVernay stated that she intended the movie as art and not as history, I found no blatant inaccuracies, just some omissions. About 26.9% of families and 31.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.8% of those under age 18 and 28.0% of those age 65 or over. He quickly remounted his stricken horse and ordered a dismounted assault by several regiments. There is often no bottom at which to start, and when there is there's almost no room at the top. On center stage in this version of the story is Martin Luther King. As a result of the focus on King, two of the civil rights movement's more powerful vignettes, both covered in the documentary Eyes on the Prize, are left out of the movie. Thousands joined the march along the way. This broke up the charge and sent General Wilson sprawling to the ground when his favorite horse was wounded. There were 8,196 households, out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them; 34.2% were married couples living together, 27.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.8% were non-families. In 1977 US 80 was named Givhan Parkway in honor of the long-serving state senator Walter C. Givhan, a segregationist to the end. Hudson Middle School and the School of Discovery. He is still at the bottom, despite the few who have penetrated to slightly higher levels. The per capita income for the city was $13,369. Selma was protected by fortifications that circled much of the city; it was protected on the north and south by the Alabama River. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. The movie's focus is on a very narrow historical timeframe, basically January to March 1965, the final stages of the struggle to secure federal support for voting rights for African Americans. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman first made an effort to reach it, but after advancing from the west as far as Meridian, Mississippi, within 107 miles (172 km) of Selma, his forces retreated back to the Mississippi River. Later Anglo-Americans called it the Moore's Bluff settlement. The Black Belt, Dallas County, and Selma Alabama. He credited the event with giving his parents the idea that they could have a child. In 1901, the state legislature passed a new constitution with electoral provisions, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, that effectively disenfranchised most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites, leaving them without representation in government, and deprived them of participation in juries and other forms of citizenship. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.4 square miles (37 km2), of which 13.9 square miles (36 km2) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2) is water.[19]. A look at Selma, Alabama today, what has changed and what has not, points to the long road the United States and the American people still must travel to achieve the dream Martin Luther King spelled out in his 1963 speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Registration increased by November, when Wilson Baker was elected as Dallas County Sheriff to replace the notorious Jim Clark. In the darkness, the Federals rounded up hundreds of prisoners, but hundreds more escaped down the Burnsville Road, including generals Forrest, Armstrong, and Roddey. A group of at least nine people took part in the protest as Bloomberg spoke during a 55th commemoration of "Bloody Sunday" -- a historic civil rights march in …