Martha Roby: “Today, I am proud to join with Terri Sewell, another Alabama Freshman Member, to offer House Resolution 562, an…”

“Today, I am 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. It is a great honor to today stand on the House floor with my colleague, Representative John Lewis, who himself played such an important role in the Selma march. 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 three-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 the nation. It quickly delivered a message to a racially divided country of the unforeseen consequences caused by segregation. Such shameless violent actions unleashed on nonviolent marchers revealed the immediate need for equal rights for citizens.…”