[captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] treat us cspanhistory. Take us back 50 years ago today. What was some like . And what led up to the idea of the march to montgomery in the first place . Reverend lafayette well, it was a very extraordinary. Extraordinary period in our history. Because what we were doing was basically giving a voice to the people who are voiceless. And that is what all these movements are about. Helping to give people a voice who otherwise would not be heard. We feel that if the voices of the poor, the voices of the disenfranchised, the voices of the suffering people are heard other people will respond. So, selma, alabama is that example of where people around the country and around the world heard the voices crying out for people not being treated equally as human beings. Now, the reason we were going to my com
Petition to the honorable george c. Wallace issued of god, citizen of the United States and governor of the state of alabama. We, as citizens of alabama citizens of many states in our United States and citizens of several foreign countries, come praying the blessing of god upon you and we, many responsibilities that are yours to discharge. We come petitioning you to join us in spirit and in truth in what is historys and Americas Movement toward the great society. A nation of justice where none shall prey upon the weakness of other, a nation of plenty where greed and poverty shall be done away, a nation of brotherhood where success is founded upon service and honor given for nobleness alone. We have come to represent the negro citizens of alabama and freedom loving people from all over the United States and the world. We have come not only 65 days and 60 miles but we have come from three centuries of suffering and hardship. We have come to you, the governor of alabama, to declare that w
Is africanamerican. We have made an important statement as a country. We have to continue to work at this thing. If we dont continue to step forward, we will go backwards. Because the world is moving. To stand still is to go back. We have to keep moving forward. Thats what the movement is about. Moving forward, recognizing those changes we still have to make. Host a commemoration today on the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday. Call American History tv at reverend lafayette, you were in selma, alabama several years right or to the marches, the events that happened in march of 1965. Tell us how you ended up in selma, alabama p we heard the story about the x on the map marking selma off. You went anyway. What is the story there . What happened is those of us from asheville had decided that since we had the sit in movement and we continued the freedom rides, once we started the freedom rides, we decided if we would give a fulltime for a couple of years, it would be like the peace corps, bo
Clubs against unarmed human beings who were simply marching for justice to it was normalcy in a cafe in selma, alabama, that led to the brutal beating of the reverend james reese. It is normalcy all over our country which needs two leaves the negro perishing on a lonely island of poverty and a bad ocean of prosperity. It is normalcy all over alabama that prevents the negro from the coming a registered voter. No we will not allow alabama to return to normalcy. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and works of all of gods children. The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice. I must admit to you that there are still some difficult days ahead. Many of the black belt counties of alabama, and many areas of mississippi, many areas of louisiana i must admit to you that there are still jail cells waiting for us. If we will go on with nonviolence and its power can t
Treat us cspanhistory. Take us back 50 years ago today. What was some like . And what led up to the idea of the march to montgomery in the first place . Reverend lafayette well, it was a very extraordinary. Extraordinary period in our history. Because what we were doing was basically giving a voice to the people who are voiceless. And that is what all these movements are about. Helping to give people a voice who otherwise would not be heard. We feel that if the voices of the poor, the voices of the disenfranchised, the voices of the suffering people are heard other people will respond. So, selma, alabama is that example of where people around the country and around the world heard the voices crying out for people not being treated equally as human beings. Now, the reason we were going to my comic alabama i want to make it there is because that is the state capital of alabama. We did not have much is there before from selma, but the reason we had this particular march is because of what