Martha Roby: “Thank you for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, today I'm so proud to join with Terri Sewell, another Alabama freshman…”

“Thank you for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, today I'm so proud to join with Terri Sewell, another Alabama freshman Member, to offer House Resolution 562, an initiative that will preserve a collection of accounts from Members involved in the historic and annual marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The oral histories preserved through this resolution will memorialize the symbolic events that changed the direction of the civil rights movement. What took place during three historic marches in Alabama over a 3-week period in 1965 proved to be a powerful transformation in American history. The courageous actions of so many moved our country out of an era of misguided actions. Participants marched towards a unified goal to provide equal voting rights for all Americans. The first march, on March 7, 1965, remains, without a doubt, one of the worst demonstrations of racial violence. Participants peacefully marching were met by a brutal and aggressive police force. This violence was captured by the news and broadcast to family rooms all over this Nation. It quickly delivered a message to a racially divided country of unforeseen consequences caused by segregation. Such shameless violent actions unleashed on nonviolent marchers revealed the immediate need for equal rights for citizens. Without a doubt, the days that racial voting laws were enforced for our country were among the darkest and least honorable for this Nation.…”