Selma deserves our attention more than one day a year

 On March 7, 1965, 600 activists began peacefully marching in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery to protest the rampant voter suppression of Black Americans. 

Activists chose Selma as the starting point for their march due to its infamous voter suppression, with the Alabama Governor George Wallace opposing desegregation and the local county sheriff opposing Black voter registration drives. As such, only one percent of voting-age Black citizens were registered to vote, and those who tried to vote often faced violence, like police brutality. 

As marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965, 150 Alabama state troopers descended with little to no warning, violently and maliciously attacking and injuring the peaceful marchers with tear gas and clubs. 

The event became known as Bloody Sunday. The attack sparked national outrage that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The city of Selma, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in particular, became an enduring symbol for the Civil Rights movement. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, for example, nearly every presidential candidate on the ticket visited Selma to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday this year, politicians will surely flock to the city to walk across the bridge, take photos, and declare the importance of voting rights. However, Selma’s voter suppression and lack of resources, the very reason activists chose it as the location for the march nearly 60 years ago, has not been magically resolved.

Instead, Selma remains a deeply rural area with residents who feel abandoned by their government. Selma is located in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and has a population of around 17,971 people. About 80 percent of that population is Black.

Ryan Zickgraf describes in his article “Politicians Come to Selma Every Year to Commemorate the Civil Rights Struggle, But Nothing Changes” how the downtown is largely made up of empty and crumbling stores and homes. He talks to Selma native, Owen Peak, who warns:

This is a do-or-die time here – we really need help.

Yet, residents feel they are not receiving help when they need it most. In Chris Arnade’s article “‘Still a city of slaves’- Selma, in the words of those who live there,” Council McReynolds, a lifetime resident of Selma, states that all the factories have closed and that:

Selma has been left behind, and folks are certainly not working together.

In 2020, Selma and the surrounding Dallas County had voter turnout of under 57 percent, among the worst in the state. In Jay Reeves’ article “Despite its civil rights history, Selma, Alabama sees steady voter turnout decline,” Resident Tyrone Clarke explains why, despite the extreme effort and bodily harm endured to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, residents remain hesitant to visit the polls:

You have a whole lot of people who look at the conditions and don’t see what good it’s going to do for them. You know, ‘How is this guy or that guy being in office going to affect me in this little, rotten town here?’

The numbers tell a similar somber, distressing tale as Selma’s residents. As discussed in a previous blog post, Selma is Alabama’s poorest town. In 2022, the poverty rate in Selma was 29.5 percent. That same year, the median household income was $31,084, less than half the 2022 national average of $74,580. With a high poverty rate and without any prospect of a job, many people turn to using or dealing drugs.

Yet Selma, like the rest of Alabama, has some of the strictest policies concerning drugs, coupled with the second highest incarceration rate in the country; policies that disproportionately affect Black residents. One man from Selma, recently released from prison, commented:

Once I got my felony, I became the walking dead. I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t vote, I couldn’t drive, and I sure as hell couldn’t work, so I sat around doing nothing, until I started selling again.

A terrible cycle exists in Selma in which people cannot find a job, turn to drugs, get arrested, and then receive a felony on their record that disqualifies them from more work and the right to vote for politicians who will make the town better.

The yearly pilgrimage to Selma highlights the irony of celebrating a pivotal moment in civil rights history in a town that fails to reap any concrete benefits of that progress, and feels the lasting impact of centuries of discriminatory policies.

As politicians flock to Selma for their annual visit and photo-ops, they should prioritize Selma the other 364 days of the year. While the Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be celebrated, the work to push forward civil rights is far from over in Selma.