THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Selma in Turmoil

Aslynn Roe 🐈
2 min readJan 14, 2023

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. and Historic Selma, Alabama

Photo image credit CNN.com

Today is a strange day of dichotomy in history. In 1878, the US Supreme Court ruled race separation on trains was unconstitutional, however, on this day in 1963, George Wallace was sworn in as Alabama’s Governor, promising “segregation forever.”

And this weekend we celebrate the vision of the first President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King, Jr.

King organized two of the three marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to protect voting rights on March 7, 1965.

Photo credit NPR.com

The city of Selma, Alabama is currently in shambles as a string of over 33 tornadoes ravaged the state. A tornado, described as a E-2 or E-3, has devastated downtown Selma and left at least 9 killed across the state.

While it appears the Edmund Pettus Bridge was spared in this storm, city officials were literally governing from the streets of the city using light from car headlights for operations.

--

--

Aslynn Roe 🐈

I am a listener of culture, history, media, and politics. Follow me, and we will go somewhere. Finding out where is half the fun!