The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Alabama State troopers

  • 60th anniversary of ‘Bloody Tuesday’ commemorated in Tuscaloosa at First African Baptist Church

    Praise dancers in front of First African Baptist Church

    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

     

    On Sunday, June 9, 2024, the sanctuary of First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was packed with people to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ‘Bloody Tuesday’.

    On June 9, 1964, over 500 people gathered at the same church, in a mass meeting to prepare a non-violent march to the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, four blocks away, to integrate the facility’s rest rooms, drinking fountains and offices which were segregated by race. The march and the Tuscaloosa movement were led by Rev. T. Y. Rogers, a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King and part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Rogers was a native of Sumter County in the Alabama Black Belt.

    As the marchers were leaving the church, they were met by Tuscaloosa Police, Sheriff’s deputies, Alabama State Troopers, and Klu Klux Klansmen who beat them violently with clubs, batons and baseball bats. The marchers retreated into the church. The police turned on fire hoses, smashing the churches-stained glass windows and then fired tear gas into the church. As the marchers fled the church they were again beaten, and some were jailed.

    In all, some forty people were injured and hospitalized, 95 were jailed and others were physically and psychologically bruised in the largest and most violent attack on a church during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. This occurred 8 months before the “Bloody Sunday’ march in Selma and laid the basis for that voting rights campaign.

    The 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress a month after “Bloody Tuesday’ opening public accommodations to Black people in the South. Rev. T. Y. Rogers continued the marches until facilities in Tuscaloosa were desegregated and open to all. The news coverage of the events of June 9, 1964, have been limited. Most followed the Tuscaloosa News’ lead, which labeled the confrontation at the church as a “Black riot”. Soon other developments like the Mississippi Freedom Summer, overshadowed the June 1964 events at the First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa.

    About 20 years ago, the veteran foot soldiers created the Bloody Tuesday Committee to remember and commemorate the events of ‘Bloody Tuesday’. Sunday’s program honored the 60th anniversary of the violent attack on the church and the movement in Tuscaloosa. It honored twenty surviving foot soldiers, who stood at the church to be recognized as part of the program. Many were teenagers and young people sixty years ago on ‘Bloody Sunday ‘. The leaders of the movement including Rev. T. Y. Rogers, Rev. Linton and others have already passed on.

    The program at the church featured singing of church and freedom songs, led by the church choir and joined by the full congregation. There was a liturgical dance by the Friendship Baptist Church Praise Team. Young ladies with Black t-shirts and white skirts performed the dance. Their shirts each had a single word, related to the freedom struggle: Stand Up, Oppression, Equality, Overcome, Injustice, Freedom, Resilience and Peace. The dancers received a standing ovation at the end of their presentation.

    Tiedre Owens, Tuscaloosa staff member for Congresswoman Terri Sewell, made remarks supporting the foot soldiers and the work of the Tuscaloosa Bloody Tuesday Committee. She showed a video of Congresswoman Sewell making remarks on the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives on last Friday, about the events of ‘Bloody Tuesday’ to insure they were inscribed in the Congressional Record.

    Walt Maddox, Mayor of Tuscaloosa, made remarks, saying ‘Bloody Tuesday’ helped change the city for the better and contributed to making the nation a ‘more perfect union’. He said, “We cannot wash away the sins of the past. We must remember the past and have a stronger resolve to change the conditions of injustice that remain.”

    Irene Byrd presented a tribute to the foot soldiers of ‘Bloody Tuesday’, who were asked to stand. “We have no tangible gifts for you today only our thanks and gratitude for what you did for us that day,” said Byrd.

    Rev. Ramsey O’Daniel, Pastor of Christ Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa was the guest speaker. He spoke on the theme for the occasion, ‘where do we go from here’. First, we need to vote in all elections and use our vote to elect people who will make policy changes to support our interests. Second, we must develop a direct-action economic development plan in the Black community, as part of a local and national effort. We must execute this plan. Third, we must run back to Jesus, instead of running away from Jesus, because Jesus is our friend.

    The program ended with about half the people gathered there, re-enacting the four block march to the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, on Greensboro Avenue. This time, the march was escorted by Tuscaloosa Police and Sheriff’s deputies to accent the difference that sixty years of change and progress makes.

    At the Courthouse rally, leaders of the Bloody Tuesday Committee made remarks. Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy gave words of reconciliation, saying, “I was one year old on Bloody Tuesday. I have a hard time relating to the laws and policies of the past. We must learn from the past so we can do better in the present and the future.” Some members of the Committee, were looking for a formal apology from the Sheriff and other political officials, but Abernathy’s statement was the closest they heard to an official apology.

    The crowd marched back to the church for a reception and book signing by University of Alabama history professor, Dr. John M. Giggie, of his newly published book entitled “Bloody Tuesday- The untold story of the struggle for civil rights in Tuscaloosa”. This book is the result of research and interviewing survivors of Bloody Tuesday, including many foot soldiers, police and Klansmen over the past ten years.

  • Newswire: John Lewis, an American hero and moral leader, dies at 80

    By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

    John Lewis



    Born in 1940, in Troy, Alabama (Pike County), John Lewis, the son of a sharecropper, helped to lead America out of an era of racism. Through his activism and bravery, Lewis carried the moral authority that few other leaders in U.S. history could claim.
    On July 17th he died in Atlanta on the same day that another civil rights legend, Rev. C.T. Vivian, passed away. Lewis was 80 years old. In December 2019, Lewis announced he had stage four pancreatic cancer.
    The famous March 7, 1965 video of Lewis being attacked along with 600 other marchers by Alabama State troopers near the Edmund Pettus Bridge is an often reviewed turning point in American social and cultural history. The footage from Selma of ‘Bloody Sunday’ shocked the nation and the world as Blacks in the United States struggles against government authority for basic rights and respect.
    The violent confrontation led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965.
    The 1965 Selma march was led by John Lewis. Lewis was perhaps the last remaining voice of moral authority from the civil rights era. Voting rights remains a challenge in the U.S. Lewis was on the front lines of that effort which was resisted by white racists in the South attempting to stifle Black voting power for decades. Lewis’ efforts and the increase in Black voting registration of African Americans in the South changed U.S. politics forever. The power of Black voters was first seen nationally with the election of President Jimmy Carter in 1976.
    Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. SNCC was one of six groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington and fought to end racial segregation in America. SNCC launched the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign for voting rights. The effort was met with violence, murder but it resulted in some of the most historic and consequential changes in the law for human rights in America.
    John Lewis was the last living speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington. At 23, Lewis was the youngest speaker to stand behind the same podium Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his historic, “I Have a Dream” speech.
    Lewis’ speech was altered by Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph and James Foreman because Lewis’ original draft was critical of President Kennedy. Lewis was viewed as too radical by Randolph in particular and Lewis was critical of the civil rights bill he believed did not go far enough to protect African Americans against police brutality.
    “It is true that we support the administration’s civil rights bill,” Lewis said to the crowd of thousands at the March on Washington.
    “We support it with great reservations, however. Unless Title III is put in this bill, there is nothing to protect the young children and old women who must face police dogs and fire hoses in the South while they engage in peaceful demonstrations. In its present form, this bill will not protect the citizens of Danville, Virginia, who must live in constant fear of a police state. It will not protect the hundreds and thousands of people that have been arrested on trumped charges. What about the three young men, SNCC field secretaries in Americus, Georgia, who face the death penalty for engaging in peaceful protest?” the young Lewis said.
    In 1986, Lewis was elected to Congress where he became the conscience of the Congress who regularly delivered emotional speeches and moral authority on the House floor.
    U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who announced Lewis’ death, wrote, “Rep. John Lewis: hero, champion and challenge to conscience of the nation. Your visit with the newest voices for justice at the Black Lives Matter mural with Muriel Bowser was wonderful and iconic. Thank you for that final public statement in furtherance of a more perfect union.”
    On June 7, appearing thinner but remaining spirited, Lewis visited the street mural in large yellow letters that reads BLACK LIVES MATTER placed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia. The appearance would be one of his last in public.
    After the death of George Floyd, Lewis said, “It was so painful, it made me cry. People now understand what the struggle was all about. It’s another step down a very, very long road toward freedom, justice for all humankind.”
    “John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation. Every day of his life was dedicated to bringing freedom and justice to all,” Pelosi wrote on social media on July 18.
    “This is a horrible loss for the nation. Words do not seem to properly convey the loss. Serving with him in Congress has been an honor, and we will all miss him and his moral leadership at this time,” wrote Education and Workforce Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) on twitter.
    “We are deeply saddened by the passing of John Lewis. His life-long mission for justice, equality and freedom left a permanent impression on our nation and world. The NAACP extends our sincerest condolences to his family, and we send prayers of comfort and strength to all,” declared the NAACP on social media.
    Lewis received every honorary degree and award imaginable from national and international organizations who recognized his moral authority and commitment to peace and non-violence. In 2011, Lewis received the highest civilian honor in the U.S. from President Obama, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    Details of how Lewis will be honored will be revealed in the coming weeks.