Selma to Montgomery by Way of Lowndes County recalls forgotten roles played by Lowndes and Perry counties

Lowndes County celebrated its Bridge Crossing Jubilee with an event commemorating the 1965 march to Montgomery that passed through the county.  

This was the second year for the “Selma to Montgomery by way of Lowndes County” event, sponsored by the Lowndes County Area Chamber of Commerce. Chamber of Commerce President Dr. Ozelle Hubert said the celebration was started because Lowndes County is being left out of history. 

“You can’t get to Montgomery unless you come through Lowndes County,” Hubert said. “That’s why the slogan of the celebration is ‘Commemorating the Selma to Montgomery March by way of Lowndes County.’”

The day started with a motorcade from Marion through Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the Lowndes Interpretive Center where the event program was held. This is the fourth year for the motorcade. A Corvette club out of Mobile usually rides up to join in, but the day started wet, rainy and foggy, so the Mobile Corvettes opted out.

This year the motorcade consisted of Doc Hubert’s Corvette and the motor home of Burgess Bailey from Charlotte, North Carolina. Bailey has attended the Bridge Crossing Jubilee for a years. In 2020, he had the idea to collect the names of all the foot soldiers. Bailey displays the names he collects on the side of his RV. 

“I’m doing this to acknowledge, honor and remember the foot soldiers who were there fighting for our rights to vote.” Bailey said. By driving that list over the bridge, those foot soldiers get to cross the bridge once again, at least in spirit.

There was some uncertainty about the start time of the motorcade. The Edmund Pettus Bridge was closed early to allow security details for the politicians and dignitaries who were attending the Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, including Vice President Kamala Harris. 

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Bailey took issue with the closing of the bridge. “When they close that bridge down, they are kicking the foot soldiers” who came to commemorate their experience on the bridge in 1965, he said. 

The motorcade started in Marion, because that is where the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson occurred. That is the event that sparked the civil rights movement. Hubert said the motorcade commemorates the parts of civil rights history often left out of the history books.

The motorcade ended at the Lowndes Interpretive Center, where there was a program and lunch for attendees prepared by the leadership of the town of White Hall. 

Christin Clark, the Assistant Attorney General to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, explained that her job is to promote racial justice and equality. “One of the key ways we do that is through the enforcement of civil rights laws which includes the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Clark said. “A law that we have because of the blood that was shed on Bloody Sunday in 1965.” She added that the right to vote is one of the most important because it “it is the right from which all other rights flow.”

She said that the DOJ is in Lowndes County to fight for the people who do not have adequate sewage and wastewater removal, which is a major problem in Lowndes County.

Sherry Bradley, who is with the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program, explained that her group has installed at least 100 onsite sewage disposal treatment systems in Lowndes County. 

Speakers from the Health Department and the community also spoke about the need to solve the sewage problem. They also spoke on the fact that there is only one ambulance in Lowndes County and no urgent care facility.