The Reverence Martin Luther King, Jr. leads marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
on March 21, 1965, the first of a 5 day march to Montgomery. Representative John Lewis, who as a young civil rights leader was clubbed by police, won House approval on Tuesday May 14, 1996 of a bill designating the march route from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery a national historic trail.
(Associated Press)
Let’s start on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Wait, let’s start with the special theme for this
Jubilee, Cross the Bridge, then be a Bridge to Selma. I want you to see the fullness of this theme in your mind, your heart and your spirit. Selma, Alabama has been a powerful Bridge in moving this country and the world toward a more meaningful democracy that includes so many of those previously left out. Selma and the Bridge became universal symbols and moving forces for freedom around the world. There is a powerful spirit that touches each person who visits Selma. Now Selma needs a Bridge to make its hardship reality consistent with its pervasive symbolism. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful.
Let’s go back to Thursday, March 2, 2023 in our anticipating minds. Let’s travel to the Ronnie Sharpe Park in Selma. There is the Hands-On Selma Community Joy Festival for Children. There will be gifts for children, especially those impacted by the Selma Tornado on January 12. This is the first of four such events, one each day. At 7:00 p.m., we will mentally go to the Tabernacle Baptist Church for the Old Fashion Mass Meeting. Tabernacle was the first church in Selma that allowed a mass meeting for voting and civil rights. It was dangerous for churches as they were being bombed. This Old Fashioned Mass Meeting is the official opening of the Jubilee, just as the opening of the church for a mass meeting was a symbolic opening of the voting rights struggle in Selma, Alabama. Great speakers will lift our spirits and our vision.
The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is so powerful. |