50 Years Later, And Still Marching For Voters’ Rights

Media coverage of the attacks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ultimately successful march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, created pressure that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But 50 years later, many of those same activists and their supporters are gravely concerned that the democratic principle of “one person, one vote” is losing ground. Members of the Voter Empowerment Collaborative (VEC), who will be traveling to Selma to commemorate the march, visited “A Closer Look” to talk about what this anniversary means to them.

Chinnery Farris said visiting Selma means so much to her and her children “because they know how hard it has been for African-Americans to reach this milestone, just to have the right to vote.”  Rose Scott and Denis O'Hayer interview Rev. Tim McDonald, Mrs. Chinnery Farris and her son, sophomore Danny Milam, about voting rights on the 50th anniversary of the Selma march.

“If you don’t know, ” she said, “you could find yourself where you’ve already been.”  

Her son, Danny Milam, is president of a Future Voters of America chapter, and he told us, “a kind of pride comes with it, to see that a race can come from so low, over so much discrimination. What was so special about it, was that it was non-violent.”    

“I am so encouraged,” Rev. Timothy McDonald, pastor of Iconium Baptist Church, said about Danny’s message, “because if you think about it, 50 years ago, those who led that movement, they were young people.”  

The VEC will focus on the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to call attention to HR 885, the Voting Rights Amendment Act that clarifies and restores provisions of Section Four of the original Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013, Rev. McDonald said.  

“We are nowhere near a ‘postracial society’…So yes, we’re going to seize on the Selma moment, but as soon as we finish crossing that bridge, we’re getting ready for November the third,” the reverend said.