Damaso
Photojournalist
http://www.newyorker.com/project/portfolio/long-road
A half century ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, spoke of the “creative battle” that twenty-two million black men and women in the United States were waging against “the starless midnight of racism.” A few months later, in March, 1965, that battle came to Selma, Alabama, the birthplace of the White Citizens’ Council. The issue was voting rights. As King pointed out, there were more blacks in jail in the city than there were on the voting rolls. James Baldwin, who was among the marchers, had written, “I could not suppress the thought that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.” The series of marches there––the first was Bloody Sunday, a bloody encounter with a racist police force armed with bullwhips and cattle prods; the last, the fifty-four-mile procession from Selma to the State House, in Montgomery––pushed Lyndon Johnson to send voting-rights legislation to Congress. The nonviolent discipline of the marchers, the subject of a new film by Ava DuVernay, and portrayed here in Steve Schapiro’s photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, became such a resonant chapter in the black freedom struggle that Barack Obama, in 2007, went to Selma to speak, at Brown Chapel, just weeks after declaring for the Presidency. Almost eight years later, as Selma is being commemorated, demonstrators against racial injustice are employing as a despairing slogan the last words of Eric Garner, an African-American man on Staten Island in the grip of a police choke hold: “I can’t breathe.”
A half century ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo, spoke of the “creative battle” that twenty-two million black men and women in the United States were waging against “the starless midnight of racism.” A few months later, in March, 1965, that battle came to Selma, Alabama, the birthplace of the White Citizens’ Council. The issue was voting rights. As King pointed out, there were more blacks in jail in the city than there were on the voting rolls. James Baldwin, who was among the marchers, had written, “I could not suppress the thought that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.” The series of marches there––the first was Bloody Sunday, a bloody encounter with a racist police force armed with bullwhips and cattle prods; the last, the fifty-four-mile procession from Selma to the State House, in Montgomery––pushed Lyndon Johnson to send voting-rights legislation to Congress. The nonviolent discipline of the marchers, the subject of a new film by Ava DuVernay, and portrayed here in Steve Schapiro’s photographs of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, became such a resonant chapter in the black freedom struggle that Barack Obama, in 2007, went to Selma to speak, at Brown Chapel, just weeks after declaring for the Presidency. Almost eight years later, as Selma is being commemorated, demonstrators against racial injustice are employing as a despairing slogan the last words of Eric Garner, an African-American man on Staten Island in the grip of a police choke hold: “I can’t breathe.”
darya151
Established
Thanks for posting this!
Darya
Darya
robert blu
quiet photographer
interesting, the story sand the photos, Thanks for this link.
robert
robert
Harryo1962
Established
I often drive that road when going between Jackson and Montgomery. I've never been able to get a good photo of that bridge in Selma. It's got a bunch of modern traffic signs hanging from it that are kinda of a bummer. I'll tell you one thing, that would be a damn hot walk in the summer.
emraphoto
Veteran
a bump for photographs and what they can do
Roma
Well-known
Great photos. Thanks for posting the link. Selma has a very significant place in history (from Civil War to Civil Rights).
I feel extremely lucky to have spent a year there (from 2008 to 2009) as a personal photo project to see what Selma is like today and because Obama was running for presidency. He definitely became president, in part, because of the events that transpired in Selma in 1965.
I have met wonderful people there, including some Civil Rights leaders (like Amelia Boynton and John Lewis). Every year there is a Bridge Crossing Jubilee there that celebrates Selma to Montgomery march and what it means. I attend it sometimes and it feels very good. Religious or not, going to service at Brown Chapel AME or First Baptist there is a treat also.
Some of my photos from this project can be seen at alokhin.com and going to "Queen Selma" gallery.
We'll see how Selma movie portrays those events. Can't wait to see it.
I feel extremely lucky to have spent a year there (from 2008 to 2009) as a personal photo project to see what Selma is like today and because Obama was running for presidency. He definitely became president, in part, because of the events that transpired in Selma in 1965.
I have met wonderful people there, including some Civil Rights leaders (like Amelia Boynton and John Lewis). Every year there is a Bridge Crossing Jubilee there that celebrates Selma to Montgomery march and what it means. I attend it sometimes and it feels very good. Religious or not, going to service at Brown Chapel AME or First Baptist there is a treat also.
Some of my photos from this project can be seen at alokhin.com and going to "Queen Selma" gallery.
We'll see how Selma movie portrays those events. Can't wait to see it.