Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 March 2005 — Page 4

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2005

SELMA ► Continued from Page 1

tainers rangingfrom singer Harry Belafonte to American Idol star Ruben Studdard and rapper Lil’ Scrappy participating. Back in Indianapolis on Monday, Rep. Gregory Porter, D-Indianapolis, presented a point of personal privilege on the floor of the Indiana House of Representatives to highlight the importance of the march. Currently, the Indiana General Assembly has several members who are African American

and Hispanic. Porter, who is chairman of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus noted that progress such as that would not be possible without the gains made as a result of the march. “If people had not sacrificed for us on Bloody Sunday, this chamber would be run solely by the powerful elite,” said Porter. “But we must all learn from the lessons of the past. If we get amnesia about where we’ve come in regards to the voting rights and

the civil rights movements, our society as a whole will be doomed to failure.” On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King Jr., led a

“symbolic” march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, fullscale march from Selma to the state Capitol in Montgomery. “A lot of people made significant sacrifices so that people can vote today, and it’s really frustrating to hear people say they don’t want to vote,” said Daryl Mickens, president of the Indianapolis branch of the NAACP. “But if you look back at the march what people went through, not just on

Bloody Sunday but throughout the entire movement, it’s hard to see why anybody wouldn’t want to vote.” Rev. Derek King, nephew of Martin Luther King Jr. and a professor at Martin University, said the march should not be forgotten because it “changed the electoral process in America.” But King and Brown join a growing group of national and local leaders who are warning citizens that the same voting

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads followers during the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. protesting attempts to keep Blacks from the polls.

rights that were obtained after the march might soon be in danger. Although the Voting Rights Act of1965 itself does not expire, certain important provisions of it that have enhanced opportunities for minorities to vote might expire if they are not renewed by Congress in 2007“Some legislation is revisited after a certain amount of years, and if the civil rights act was voted into law it could also be taken away,” King said. “We need to be mindful that this is something we must be held accountable for and responsible to.” “If they (congressional leadership) are messing with the Social Security system, you know what they think about doing with Black folks and voting,” added Brown, who is also president of the Indiana Christian Leadership Conference. “We must mobilize now if we want to ensure our political participation.”

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