On March 7, 1965, John
Lewis was a leader of marchers across a bridge in Selma, Alabama, on what is
sometimes called “Bloody Sunday.” One purpose of the march was to seek voting rights
for Blacks. The webpage linked to here is one of many with details about that event.
At the time of that civil rights march, I was a seven-year-old white boy in Kentucky. Below are two photos of me. The left one is from when I was in the first grade. The right one was taken when I was in the second grade. I was six or seven years old in the left one, then seven or eight years old in the right one.
I still remember seeing
as a young boy television coverage of the beating of marchers. I can’t state
for sure that it was this particular march that is embellished in my memory.
But I’m pretty sure it was.
Below I discuss my memory
of television coverage of police beating these marchers. Please realize that my
memory may be faulty after all these years.
Even the quotes in
quotation marks below should be considered paraphrases at best. But I think the
account below is reasonably accurate:
I was watching some type
of television news broadcast with my dad and mom. I don’t remember what
broadcast it was or what station or even what day or event. However, my guess
is that it was that March 7, 1965, Selma, Alabama, march for voting rights,
etc.
On television I saw some
Black persons walking or marching. I saw police beating them. It made no sense
to me. Mom and dad had taught me that the police were in position to help us,
to protect us.
I asked my dad, “Why are
the police hitting those people? They don’t seem to be doing anything wrong.”
Dad replied, “They’re not
doing what they were told.”
Me: “It looks like they
were just walking across that bridge.”
Dad replied, “They were told
not to walk across that bridge.”
Me: “Why don’t they want
them to walk across it?”
Dad: “I don’t know. I
can’t hear the sound with you talking. All I see are the pictures.”
Me: “Why is that man saying, ‘Do not resist?’ "
Dad: “Maybe he figures that
if they resist that they’ll get hit harder.”
Me: “It looks like
they’re getting hit hard enough as it is. I see a lot of blood.”
Me to mom: “Is this the
news or just a movie? It’s just a movie isn’t it? This isn’t really happening
or didn’t really happen did it?”
Mom: “I think it’s just a
movie. Bill [my dad] this isn’t part of the news is it? This is just a movie, isn’t it?”
Dad: “I guess it’s part
of the news. If they switched from the news to a movie, I think they’d have
said something about it. I don’t know.”
Millions of persons in
the United States and around the world saw video of that march and the beating
of the marchers. It is perhaps one of the key events in the civil rights
movement. I think people were shocked, millions of persons were shocked.
I was only seven years
old then. If my memory of it is accurate, this “incident” is one of the few specific
things I remember from that age.
This “incident” in my
life helps me in a small way partially appreciate the poem, "Incident," by well-known poet Countee
Cullen, that was apparently originally published in 1925 in the poetry colletion, Color. The poem, which is
now in the public domain, describes an “incident” in an 8-year-old Black boy’s
life. The Lehigh University website is one of many that contain the poem.
Closing
Thoughts
I’m glad that society has
progressed a long way toward equality in voting, jobs, etc., since that day.
However, we aren’t there yet. And there have been missteps along the way.
Indeed, at least in some
of the early days of the “equal rights” era, it perhaps became even tougher for
Black men to get jobs. The reason? Affirmative action or equal rights programs
that applied to benefit Blacks and women led to many companies hiring Black
women to meet both obligations, rather than hiring Black men.
As a white adult male, I
don’t know what it’s like to be Black. But that “incident” that I saw on television
as a seven-year-old, helped in at least a little way. Other things since have
too.
I look forward to the day
when discrimination and affirmative action both cease. I look forward to the
day Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed having a dream about, when he stated his
children, “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of
their character.”
Perhaps it would be even better
if we didn’t judge others at all. Instead, let’s seek to help one another. No
matter what fault I might see in another, I hope I will state humbly, that if
not for God’s grace, I might possess the same flaw.
As John Bradford is credited
as stating, “There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford.” Or as the King
James Version of the Bible quotes Jesus as stating in Matthew 7:1, “Judge not,
that ye be not judged.”
Whether rich or poor,
black or white, male or female, old or young, liberal or conservative, KKK member
or Black Lives Matter member, etc., let’s seek to try to listen to the other
person’s viewpoint, seek to gain understanding, and seek to attain fairness.
