City of Selma to celebrate Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. Day on May 14

The City of Selma and its co-sponsors will celebrate Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. Day on May 14 with the theme "Voting Rights and Me". 

Lafayette has made his mark in history as an activist of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, being one of its mass meeting co-organizers. 

A press conference on the event will be held on April 29 at Selma City Hall on 222 Broad Street. 

Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. Day will begin at 10 a.m. with a voting rights march and motorcade at R.B. Hudson Middle School. Line up begins at 9 a.m.

The route will be from the school to Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr. Street and through Minter Avenue, Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, Broad Street and to Edmund Pettus Bridge. 

There will be concessions, food trucks and vendors from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church. A reenactment of the first voting rights mass meeting will be held at the church from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. with a speaker, attorney Charles Bonner. 

A voting rights banquet will be held at 6 p.m. at the Jemison-Owens Gym of Selma University on 1501 Boynton Street. Reserved tables of eight are $250 donation each. Payment can be made on Cashapp at $tablegfound. 

In addition to the City of Selma the event is sponsored by Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma, Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma Legacy Foundation, and Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation.