Lowndes County hosts annual Voter Rights Jubilee Celebration on Saturday

Lowndes County will once again take its place along the historic road from Selma to Montgomery as the Lowndes County Area Chamber of Commerce prepares to host its annual Voter Rights Jubilee Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 28.

The event is designed as both a remembrance and a retracing so participants can follow the same path taken by the foot soldiers of 1965, whose courage forced the nation to confront the denial of voting rights to Black Americans.

Chamber President Dr. Ozelle Hubert said the day is meant “to commemorate, honor and acknowledge the foot soldiers of the 1965 voter rights march from Selma to Montgomery by way of Lowndes County,” a reminder that the rural stretch of Highway 80 was not simply a route but a battleground for dignity and citizenship. The theme for this year’s observance, “A call for community unity to promote economic growth and educational changes in Lowndes County, If not now… Then when?” ties the legacy of the march to the county’s present day challenges and aspirations.

The day will begin in Marion, the Perry County town where the movement’s spark was first lit with the fatal shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson. A motorcade will line up at 8 a.m. on the courthouse square before departing at 8:30 for Selma. From there, participants will cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge before continuing east along U.S. Highway 80, now designated the Robert “Bob” Mants Jr. Memorial Highway in honor of the young SNCC organizer who helped lead the marchers through Lowndes County.

The motorcade will arrive at the National Park Service’s Interpretive Center in White Hall at 11 a.m., where historians Burgess Bailey and Lois Carter will present a mobile historical display and exhibit. Their presentations will offer context for the events that unfolded in Lowndes County in 1965, when marchers camped in fields, churches, and makeshift sites as they pressed toward Montgomery under the protection of federal troops.

A formal program will follow from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the center’s theater room. The keynote address will be given by Dr. Cheryl D. Gardner Davis, representing Campsite No. 3 in the Burksville community, one of the original encampments that sheltered marchers during the five-day journey.