[Dialogue] Selma

Sat Aug 6 19:17:09 EDT 2011

Charles,

Thank you, most profusely.

Ken

On 2011-08-06, at 5:47 PM, Charles or Doris Hahn wrote:

Selma seems to have captured us.  So I shall tell an expanded account of Selma.  Bob Fishell and I were the first to go from EI/the Order. We were working in the Local Church Project (what was to become Fifth City).  The day after the terrible attack on MLK's attempt to march across the bridge, King put out an appeal for clergy from across the country to come and help.  Fishel said lets go.  I said OK.  We asked JWM for permission to go and to be sent.  He said yes.  So that night (Monday night) we were on a flight to Montgomery.  Also on the plane we met two Chicago pastors who were a part of the Clergy Cadre we had just formed.  We were met at the airport and driven to Selma by a woman from Detroit who was helping the cause. 

It was a very exciting event with great services in one of the Black churches at least twice  a day and almost continuous rallies of one kind or another.  We stayed with black families in Selma.  I think it was the second day after we arrived a Congregational Pastor from New England was beaten to death with baseball bats at a restaurant in Selma.  We had been urged to stay in the neighborhood of the church, but two or three pastors decided it would be safe go for a meal in the center of town.  How wrong they were.

The decision had been made to keep a significant contingent of people ready to march toward and across the bridge toward Montgomery.  The third or fourth night we were there Fishel and I were assigned to be in the "ready to march"  contingent.  There were other clergy and many students, both black and white---perhaps 75-100 altogether.  We all were singing Freedom  Movement songs and dancing, etc.   After a while The two our three rows of students ahead of us began to surge toward the line of heavily armed State Police blocking the way to the Bridge, and the whole contingent joined in.  Off to the side officers from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation were photographing us.  The surge would go directly up to the faces of the offficers almost bumping into them.  Fishel and I were in the third row.  This really frightened me.  If someone should trip and fall into an officer, I could not imagine what might happen.  I turned to Fishel and said: "We have to stop this. It's too dangerous.  He broke into raucus laughter, and just shook his head.  It suddenly dawned on me the reality of the famous phrase of the period "You can't trust anyone over 30."  Fishel was 26 and I was 34.  We survived the night.

After a few days it was decided that I should return to Chicago and help get the busload of people from Fifth City recruited and ready to go for the final push.  David Scott was sent to replace me, and to help prepare for the arrival of the bus. I was to stop in Washington on my way and visit two Texas Senators and two Texas Representatives I knew.  Particularly, we wanted to thank Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas, who was the only Southern Senator to express outrage in the Senate over what had happened on the Bridge.

I cannot remember who was on the bus; however, I am certain that Joe was not. 

I hope I have shed a little common memory on the subject and that this has not been too verbose.

Grace and Peace,
Charles

From: Norm and Judy Lindblad <nj.lindblad at gmail.com>
To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sat, August 6, 2011 11:25:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Selma

Thank you Anne for this vivid retelling.  There are so many stories!  We are blessed to have them and to have folks like you, who were eye witnesses to history, share them with us.  

In our pre-EI days, we were at First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, Conn. When our pastor, George Cox, told the congregation that he felt called to go to Selma, Norm and I dug into our newlywed pockets and contributed for his bus fare.  

These are still the times and we are still the people.

Grace and peace, Judy Lindblad

On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 3:17 PM, Anne Wood <awoodewm at aol.com> wrote:

Betty Pesek was not there and neither was Joe Mathews.

My memory of the event is vivid but the cast of characters is blured....

I remmeber Donna McClesky was there and she was very pregnant at the time. I also think that Joe Slicker and Fred Buss were there.

We rode all night on a Greyhound bus........We arrived at some field where they were putting up a huge tent.... there was to be some sort of entertainment that night.

There had been much reported in the news about the "kind of trash" that was particapating in the march (including the easy availability of prostitutes). Sooooooooo I had worn my most expensive "David Dow" suit, heels and yes white gloves.

As we got off the bus and strolled across the field to the tent suddenly out of no where came wind and sheets of rain! We rushed under the tent for cover just as the tent pole pulled out of the ground...into the air.....and we were all knocked into what had become a mess of mud and we were trapped under the collapsed tent. So much for a respectable apperance!

There's lots more to this story......it was indeed an awesome event and I will never forget a moment

Anne Wood.

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