The Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery began on this day in 1965.

I lived in Montgomery, Alabama for a number of years and actually have fond memories of that city – the museum of fine art was free, the state archives interesting (if poorly curated and documented), and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (you can bet I took full advantage of the student rush tickets, just ten dollars starting thirty minutes before curtain). Plus, a one-time pornographic theater turned venue for independent and foreign films. I have never seen so many movies as I did then, catching nearly every film (there was only a single screen, so it was a movie a week, basically) that played there.

You also could not escape the history of the civil rights movement there, nor could the cultured veneer cover up extant inequalities.

The picture attached is of the Civil Rights Memorial outside the Southern Poverty Law Center. It was designed by Maya Lin, the same sculptor who also designed the Vietnam War Memorial. By the way, the white haired woman just left of center (next Roy Blunt) is my old boss, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano.

The memorial lists important events in the Civil Rights movement, as well as a quote from the Book of the Prophet Amos: ‘Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.‘