Marker erected in Selma to commemorate visit by Lafayette

A historic marker memorializing the visit of French-born Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Selma 200 years ago was unveiled in downtown Selma April 4.

The Lafayette Trail marker is located on the southwest corner of Water Avenue and Washington Street across the street from the St. James Hotel.

“We are celebrating the bicentennial of Lafayette’s farewell tour all over the United States, including right here in Alabama,” said Julien Icher, founder and president of the Lafayette Trail. “On April 5, 1825, General Lafayette visited Selma. He made a quick stop, and the locals got on the boat to greet him.”

Lafayette visited Montgomery, Selma, the capital at Cahawba and Mobile during his tour of the state.

The general was an outspoken abolitionist, which ties in with Selma’s identity as a shrine for the voting rights movement a century later, Icher said.

Selma City Council President Billy Young agreed. “Over 200 years ago, the sound a freedom was ringing in Selma, Alabama,” Young said. He noted that what Alabamians who heard Lafayette speak heard about abolition.

“(Lafayette) wanted to make sure everybody was free,” Young said. Years later, “the whole world was looking at Selma as we fought for freedom.”

Icher thanked Young and the city of Selma for their help. The marker was funded by Syracuse, New York-based William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

The Lafayette Trail, Inc. has donated over 170 historic markers across the entirety of the original route of Lafayette’s 1825 tour. Markers have been placed in 25 states and Washington, DC. Selma’s marker is number 149.