Food Justice Spring Break 3/23 – 3/29, Selma Alabama Cultural Exchange

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THE SELMA BRIDGE CROSSING JUBILEE
Selma and the Alabama Black Belt were the battlegrounds for the Voting Rights Movement that resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Alabamians stood up and peacefully fought for the right to vote. SNCC, SCLC, national churches and religious organizations, civil rights and labor organizations, and stars of the Movement supported the Alabama Voting Rights Movement. The Jubilee is to commemorate and thank them for their work, leadership and sacrifice.This annual event in Selma, Alabama, commemorates “Bloody Sunday,” which occurred March 7, 1965, when a group of about 525 African American demonstrators gathered at Browns Chapel to demand the right to vote. They walked six blocks to Broad Street, then across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where they were met by more than 50 state troopers and a few dozen possemen on horseback. When the demonstrators refused to turn back, they were brutally beaten. At least 17 were hospitalized, and 40 others received treatment for injuries and the effects of tear gas. The attack, which was broadcast on national television, caught the attention of millions of Americans and became a symbol of the brutal racism of the South. Two weeks later, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and 3,200 civil rights protesters marched the 49 miles from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery—an event that prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act.Every year on the first weekend in March, the Bridge Crossing Jubilee commemorates both the bloody confrontation at the Pettus Bridge and the march from Selma to Montgomery that followed. Events include a parade, a Miss Jubilee Pageant, a mock trial, and a commemorative march to the bridge. Every five years, celebrants continue all the way to Montgomery.The Resource Center for Nonviolence Cultural Exchange SELMA (CE SELMA) program provides opportunities for people of all ages to integrate intercultural understanding and develop culturally inclusive perspectives. Resources included in the program are geared toward developing knowledge about culture, cultural diversity and identity within the context of the United States.Our program is designed to expose individuals to people from different cultural, religious, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds and in so doing provide the opportunity for participants to develop a greater understanding of diversity – both in the United States and worldwide. We encourage everyone to interact with and learn from people who are different from themselves and to participate in new and unique experiences beyond their own communities. CE SELMA assists participants to develop positive relationships with others, understand a broader range of perspectives, and develop the knowledge and skills needed for participation in our multicultural society.Cultural Exchange SELMA is a Resource Center for Nonviolence program.