Melvin Watt: “I rise today to stand with this brave man, Representative John Lewis, to commemorate the anniversary of the Selma to…”

“I rise today to stand with this brave man, Representative John Lewis, to commemorate the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march, one of the milestones in civil rights history. Thirty years ago today hundreds of brave African-American men and women, Representative John Lewis among them, risked their lives to ensure the voting rights of all people, regardless of their race. During the 1960s, the State of Alabama was notorious for its practices of segregation. Like many States in the South, Alabama did not even acknowledge the equal rights of black men and women. In 1965, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others began trying to escalate his Selma voting registration campaign. But whites in Alabama, including then Governor George Wallace, were just as adamant in their protests against the voter registration campaign. On March 7, 1965, more than 600 marchers gathered in front of Brown's Chapel AME Church in Selma to prepare for the 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery. This march was intended to dramatize the demands for voting rights.”