ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: JIM LUTHER ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE 54 MILES WALKED, in defiance of official policies, to protest racial discrimination 31 years ago deserves historic designation, the House of Representatives said Tuesday.
Rep. John Lewis, who as a young civil rights leader was clubbed by police during a milestone 1965 demonstration, won House approval Tuesday of a bill designating the march route from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., a national historic trail.
``The march ... was a turning point in the journey to the Voting Rights Act of 1965,'' Lewis, D-Ga., reminded the House. ``History along this route is precious.''
The measure was passed by voice vote after Lewis urged ``recognition to the men and women who sacrificed so much for voting rights in America.'' It now goes to the Senate.
On March 7, 1965, which since has been known as Bloody Sunday, Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams tried to lead a peaceful demonstration along the route over the opposition of then-Gov. George Wallace.
The marchers were met on Edmund Pettus Bridge by a sheriff's posse and state troopers who stopped them with tear gas, nightsticks and bullwhips. News reports shocked the nation, and two weeks later, the Rev. Martin Luther King, church leaders and others converged on Selma to complete the 54-mile march under protection of a Alabama National Guard placed under federal control.
The march underscored the fact that at the time, some Southern counties had populations that were as much as 80 percent black - but not even one black registered voter.
In large part because of sentiment aroused by Bloody Sunday, then-President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law Aug. 6, 1965.
Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., who represents the Selma area, said the march route deserves the same historical recognition as landmarks in Philadelphia, Washington and Vicksburg, Miss., ``so we can learn about our mistakes so those mistakes will never be repeated again.''
``The trail that Dr. Martin Luther King walked ... in 1965 is as meaningful as the route Paul Revere rode in Boston, as historic as the one rode by Lewis and Clark,'' said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP file 1965 Civil rights protesters march towardby CNBMontgomery, Ala., on March 21, 1965. Tuesday, the House voted to
designate the route, beginning in Selma, as a historic national
trail.