This is an old post card of Main Street in Selma, Alabama. By the looks of the traffic, or lack of (and pavement), I think this picture was made before 1915. Cars seemed to be more plentiful then.
You might remember Selma, Alabama, in early 1965. Blacks were having a hard time registering to vote in town. President Johnson sent troops to town to see that they were property registered. The whites in town thought it as anti-America - Blacks voting? Who ever heard of such?
I remember lying in a Naval Hospital ward in Philadelphia recovering from an operation. There was snow on the window ledge. On a black and white TV at the end of the room LBJ gave a speech saying that the black folks in Selma had a right to vote like everybody else in the country and he was going to use force if necessary to see that they got to register. He topped his speech by saying, “We Shall Over Come.”
Now blacks openly and freely exercise their right to vote and hold public elected offices and black & white TVs are rare. That’s progress!
Progress indeed....
ReplyDeleteI went to Selma fir a speech tournament when I was in High School, but I don't remember anything about the town.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThat same year, 1965, weeks after I came off active duty I went to Panama City, Fla for some R&R and ran into two girls from Selma. They seemed hardly aware their town was in turmoil several months before.
Maybe your jazzy "war stories" made them forget all their troubles!
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's it! They were in awe of my war stories. I think that story of how I put too much ketchup on my french fries in the chow hall really but knocked their brains I could tell.