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A group of 45 Berea College students, faculty, staff and alumni will be
traveling to Alabama March 10-12, joining people from across the country
for a commemoration of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights.
For the historic March, Berea’s delegation was the largest of
all Kentucky colleges and universities. Four of those original marchers,
who were Berea students in 1965, will be among those taking part in the
reeactment, including Ann Beard Grundy of Lexington.
On Friday, March 11, the Berea group will receive a tour of Selma and
be presented the “Citizen Appreciation Award” by the event’s
organizers. The commemorative rally will be held Saturday at the Capitol
in Montgomery.
Forty years ago, the Selma to Montgomery March was one of the most important
events of the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans and whites from
throughout the United States, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., marched
to call for voting rights for all Americans. Despite intimidation along
the way, the marchers succeeded in building national support for the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Berea’s involvement in the 1965 march and events leading up to
it, has recently been researched by Dr. Dwayne Mack, assistant professor
of history at Berea, and co-coordinator of the trip. Mack pieced together
the full story from archival records, original interviews, site visits,
and from others sources.
In 1964, a number of Berea students, faculty and staff marched on the
state capitol in Frankfort, along with thousands of others in the state,
lobbying the Kentucky legislature to pass civil rights legislation. The
College supported the event by canceling classes and providing demonstrators
transportation to the march.
A year later, the attention of Berea activists and of people around
the nation were focused on Alabama, where severe voter registration restrictions
for blacks had prompted action by blacks and violent reaction from some
white Alabamans, including local authorities. A small group of Bereans
took part in the march led by Martin Luther King Jr. on March 9, 1965
that had to turn back before arriving at Montgomery and during which
a white minister from Boston was killed. When King organized another
four-day march for March 21 - 24, a Greyhound bus and four cars carrying
58 Berea College students and faculty members participated in the final
and most important leg of the march.
In addition to Grundy, other original marchers who are expected to join
Berea’s delegation to Selma this weekend, include George Giffin,
class of 1965 who now lives in Dearborn, Mich.; Jane Matney Powell, ’65,
of Miamisburg, Ohio; Sarah Wade Brown, ’65, now of Portland Oregon,
and Evelyn Lloyd White, ’66, of Columbia, Md.
For additional information contact event coordinator Dr. Meta Mendel-Reyes,
at (859) 985-3940 or . Dr. Dwayne Mack can
be contacted through Julie Sowell, Berea College Public Relations at
(859) 985-3028, or at .
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