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119 6 The March from Selma to Montgomery I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. —Nelson Mandela The Voter Registration Campaign in Selma started about the same time as the movement in Marion, Perry County, Alabama. Albert Turner, the SCLC leader, and Dorothy Cotton and James Orange, SCLC staff, were working in Perry County and central Alabama. James was arrested for his work on voting rights, but he was charged specifically with contributing to the delinquency of a minor because he had involved students. He had grown up surrounded by civil rights activists and had learned early how to be a leader. With his impressive stature of six feet three inches, and weight of more than three hundred pounds, his firm commitment to nonviolence often made him appear like a gentle giant. Orange, as we called him, carried a lot of weight in the struggle and didn’t mind carrying the burden for others. He was often referred to as a foot soldier, and he popularized the greeting that the staff used each day: “Hello, Leader.” It represented his respect for people, regardless of their station in life. He captured Dr. King’s affirmation that everybody can be great if they’re willing to serve. Orange was able to relate to people on all levels, whether they were top-paid officials or low-paid laborers, whether they were tribal chiefs or kitchen chefs, whether they were government leaders or gang leaders. Orange’s arrest prompted a protest march. Word spread that a group of Klansmen was going to lynch him that evening while he was in custody. A night demonstration was planned for people to walk together to the jail to spotlight his illegal incarceration, to provide a wall of protection for him, and at the same time protest the interference with voter registra- 120 IN PEACE AND FREEDOM tion. At the mass meeting in the Zion United Methodist Church before the march, Rev. C. T. Vivian gave a fiery speech, as he usually did. He spoke of the stark contrast of throwing light on James’s imprisonment in the dark. Under the shroud of night, the march was far more dangerous and the risks were higher. On this particular night, the streetlights were turned off by the power company during the course of the event, so the streets were even blacker. The behavior of the law enforcement would be undetected under the cover of darkness. Twenty-six-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson and his entire family participated in the march, as did other families. Jimmie Lee had been actively involved in voting rights since he had been denied the right to register for about four years. State troopers attempted to stop the march, flailing their billy clubs, knocking people to the ground, and Jimmie Lee’s eighty-two-year-old grandfather, his sister, and his mother were attacked along with others. When Jimmie Lee came to his mother’s rescue, the police assaulted him. He started to run, and they chased him into Mack’s Cafe and shot him in the stomach numerous times. He died soon after at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. Jimmie Lee was the first to give his life in the Selma campaign, but, sadly, he would not be the last. On that night not only was he killed, but every member of his family suffered some atrocity. This brutal murder of an innocent, unarmed man sparked a new and vital switch from a mainly local concern to a national dialogue, beginning with the famous Selma to Montgomery March.1 Although I was in Selma when the Marion march happened, there were numerous SCLC and SNCC workers involved there who reported information back to us immediately. I was absolutely shocked. In the many earlier marches, there had been beatings and brutalities, but never a killing. We hadn’t anticipated this happening at all. That was a significant turn of events. I didn’t note any observable reaction from the white population in Selma, but the black community was outraged. The leaders knew we needed to act quickly to prevent the situation from escalating out of control into violence. Bevel and I went to visit Jimmie Lee’s family a few days later. We met his mother, Mrs. Viola Jackson, his sixteen-year-old sister, Emma Jean Jackson, and his...

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