Greene County Democrat

Tag: Former State Senator Hank Sanders

  • No Kings Rally held in Selma

    Part of the No Kings Rally in Selma

    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    On Saturday, June 14, a multi-racial group of over one hundred people gathered on the west side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for a ‘No Kings’ Rally to protest the actions of the Trump Administration that harm low- and moderate-income people and help the richest people in our nation. The rally was sponsored by the Save Ourselves Movement for Justice and Democracy (SOS), Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC), and Indivisible.
    The Selma Rally was one of 13 events held in Alabama and among 2,100 held nationwide which involved 5 million people protesting Trump. This was the largest protest of an American President in history. It was held on the same day as Trump’s birthday parade in Washington D. C.
    The focus of the rallies was opposition to Trump’s immigration and deportation policies; the budget cuts in his reconciliation bill on Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP (Food Stamp and Nutrition Programs), Education, Social Security, and other programs; as well as his attacks on Democracy, Voting Rights and the Rule of Law. Another criticism is Trump’s effort to cut the social safety for vulnerable people to give massive tax cuts to the top one percent of people, multi-millionaires and billionaires in our country.
    Former State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma was the moderator of the No Kings Rally and said that the Selma site was chosen by the sponsors of the rally because of its historical significance to the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the continuance of Democracy in the United States. ”We have no room for a dictator or a self-proclaimed king in America,” he said.
    Isabella Compas of the Alabama Council for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), who said she was a child of immigrants, spoke against the actions of the Trump Administration and ICE for rounding up undocumented people from farms, working places, churches, and schools who have committed no crimes. She said that families were separated, and people were sent to detention centers in deplorable conditions. Many have been deported without due process or the chance to get legal assistance. Trump is hurting the economy by taking workers out of the fields, processing plants, hotels and construction sites where they are working to support their families without providing replacement workers.
    Martha Morgan, a retired University of Alabama law professor reported on the many legal challenges to the Trump Administration’s illegal and un-constitional actions. She reported that there are trackers on the Internet monitoring all of the legal actions against Trump. There have been 220 lawsuits so far, 73 have been successful at the initial level. Many are under appeal to appellate courts, and most may eventually reach the Supreme Court, which although aligned 6-3 with conservative members has decided some cases against Trump.
    Another speaker was Annie Pearl Avery, a veteran SNCC civil rights worker, who march across the bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. She said, “We cannot give up fighting or Trump will set us back to before the Civil Rights Movement.”
    Faya Rose Toure spoke at the rally holding some Confederate flags that the Daughters of the Confederacy had placed at public places. Faya Rose said she goes around pulling up the flags. “The Confederate flag is a symbol of defiance against the government. Trump would li8ke to take us back to slavery and Jim Crow. We are here today because we cannot allow him to take us back.”
    John Zippert with SOS and the Greene County Health System Board of Directors spoke on the implications of the Trump Medicaid and Medicare budget cuts which will eliminate health care coverage for 15 million people and lead to the closure of many more rural hospitals.
    Azali Fortier, a sophomore at Spellman College and native of Selma, spoke of the concerns of young people facing budget cuts in education for Pell Grants, scholarship, research grants and the banning of books about Black studies. “ We are also worried about the budget cuts on the safety net programs and the attacks on democracy,” she said.
    Charles Flaherty of Marion, Alabama, said this was his first protest rally in fifty years, about the same basic democratic rights, but it will not be my last.
    Near the end of the rally, Hank Sanders asked people at the rally to say where they were from and why they came. For half of the people, including some young people, said this was the first public political rally they had ever participated in. There were several Federal workers who were dismissed and others who were fearful of losing their jobs, under Trump’s directives. Several veterans in the group expressed that they were having problems with securing health care and other benefits from the Veterans Administration
    At the end of the rally, the sponsors urged the attendees to call and write their Senators and Congresspersons about their concerns about budget cuts and attacks on democracy. People were urged to write letters to the editor of their local newspapers. The people were also urged to talk to their neighbors and friends about attending the next rally against Trump to make it even larger and more impactful.
    The next rally in this series is scheduled for July 17, 2025, the “Good Trouble Lives On” to commemorate the work of the late congressman and Civil Rights leader, John Lewis, on the date of his death. The Transformational Justice Coalition will be the national sponsor. More information will be available on their website and the NoKIngs.org website as well.

  • Part of 20th anniversary celebration Black Belt Community Foundation moves to new office in Selma

    On Wednesday, May 1, 2024, the Board, staff, and supporters of the Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) moved from their previous office  to dedicate their new office at 410 Church Street in Selma, Alabama. The move, ribbon cutting, office tours, and street festival were all part of the foundation’s year-long 20th anniversary celebration.

    The move from the 609 Lauderdale Street office to the new office, which is owned and has been renovated by BBCF was accomplished in a parade of the staff and leadership of the community foundation. They were accompanied by the Selma High School Band and Cheerleaders.

    Felicia Lucky, BBCF President of the foundation, serving 12 counties that cut across the central part of the.” state, welcomed the crowd. They were assembled in a tent in the blocked off street in front of the new office. There were food trucks, a bounce-house and other games in the blocks of Church Street closed for the occasion. Lucky said, “People and communities are the central focus of our foundation and its activities. This new building will help us to accomplish our mission and better serve the community.

    A proclamation was read from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey designating May 1 as Black Belt Community Foundation Day in Alabama.

    Dr. Carol P. Zippert, founding Board chair of the foundation, was invited to make remarks. She said, “I am glad to be here to tell the story of the BBCF. We must always be ready to tell our own story.

    “We, the 16 members of the organizing committee and first board, went through months of discussion and planning in 2003 and 2004 to develop the name, mission, logo, slogan, and plans for our own foundation. We went to visit each of the 12 counties, asking people about their assets and strengths, not their problems and deficiencies. We wanted to start our community foundation to build philanthropy from the grassroots, recognizing our community needs and ways the community could work together to fulfill those needs. After twenty years of work, we have begun to realize the promise and work of our community foundation.”

    Former State Senator Hank Sanders, a Selma attorney, who was part of the formation of the foundation said that work on developing a foundation had begun for five years before the formal incorporation of BBCF. The idea for a community foundation came out of discussions of a “Selma Collaborative” which was an alliance of social justice non-profits in Selma and surrounding counties.

    “Carol Zippert, who was serving on the Board of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, had visited with community foundations across the country, brought the idea to the Selma Collaborative, as a way to raise and assemble funding for community groups. Then we were contacted by Dr. David Wilson of Auburn and Julian Smith of the Alabama Power Company, who were also looking into the possibility of a community foundation to serve the Alabama Black Belt counties,” said Sanders.

    “Our group in Selma, already had incorporated the BBCF Inc. to be a community foundation. We changed the name by dropping the Inc. and the BBCF was born and has moved forward ever since,” said Sanders. He also explained that the motto of the foundation, “Taking what we have, to make what we need”, came from a saying from his mother, who used it to encourage her large family of 13 children, when things got hard.

    George McMillan, a former Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, who was an original BBCF Board member also attended and spoke. “We had days and days of meetings to work out the details and plans of BBCF. One thing that we can all be very proud of is our foundation in ‘community associates’ which guide and advise the foundation in every county, help to raise money, and serve as points of contact for people to communicate with the foundation. This is a unique element of BBCF’s structure and operations that other groups wishing to start community foundation have studied and tried to copy,” said McMillan.

    Felicia Lucky introduced the current Board of Directors, the staff including Headstart Staff, Community Associates, and other supporters in attendance. She gave a check for $1,000 to the Selma High School Band Director for their participation and invited various ministers to give dedicatory prayers for the dedication. Then current and past board members
    Assembled to officially cut a ribbon to open the new office.

    Persons interested in learning more about, or to donate to, the Black Belt Community Foundation, may contact the BBCF at 410 Church Street in Selma, Alabama 36702; or by going online to their website at: blackbeltfound.org, or calling 334-874-1126.

  • Appreciation held for Spiver W. Gordon,veteran civil rights and community leader

    A surprise appreciation was held Sunday, June 11,2023 in the gymnasium of the Branch Heights Community Center to honor Elder Spiver W. Gordon for his more than 50 years service to Greene County and surrounding counties in Alabama.

    There were over one hundred participants who assembled to honor Gordon for his lifetime of community service, civil and human rights activities and the creation of two museums in Greene County to collect and display photographs and artifacts of the civil rights movement.

    Gordon has a history of honoring others at public programs he convenes, giving plaques and certificates of appreciation to many in Greene County for contributions, big and small, to the movement for civil rights, economic justice and political and social change for Black people. On Sunday, it was Spiver Gordon’s chance to receive certificates, plaques and accolades.

    Mayor Latasha Johnson presented Gordon with a key to the City of Eutaw and said the Council would approve a resolution at its next meeting declaring June 11, as ‘Spiver Gordon Day’ in the City of Eutaw.

    County Commissioners Corey Cockrell and Garria Spencer presented a resolution on behalf of the Greene County Commission honoring Gordon for his decades of service to the county.

    Carol and John Zippert honored Spiver Gordon with a plaque from Alabama New South Coalition for his years of work training and supporting Black political candidates and office holders. They also spoke of working with him in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Louisiana, before moving to Alabama.

    Anita Lewis, Executive Director of the Greene County Housing Authority honored Gordon for his service on, the public housing board but also recognized his support for her and other families in the community with personal and financial problems.

    Carrie Coleman, 91 thanked Gordon for his community service and presented him with a beautiful, multi-colored hand crocheted blanket, which took many hours and days of sewing to produce.

    Former State Senator Hank Sanders praised Gordon for “staying on the battlefield” for a lifetime of service to the community. William Bell, former Mayor of Birmingham, and guest speaker for the event, praised Gordon for his work around the state for civil rights.

    Gordon was also presented with a basket containing cards and love offerings from many people, churches and organizations wishing to recognize his service and contributions.

    Gordon, who was joined by his family: wife, Barbara and son Kenyatta,
    as well as others at the program. In his remarks at the end of the program, Gordon said he was truly surprised and humbled by the many tributes and recognitions given at the program.

     

  • Selma to Montgomery ‘Votercade’ held May 8th as part of National John Lewis Voters Advancement Day activities

    Votercade crosses Edmund Petus Bridge in Selma, (Photo by Sue Dorfman)

    Over one hundred vehicles, including the Black Lives Matter bus participated in Saturday’s Selma-to-Montgomery ‘Votercade’ in support of passage of HR1/S1 The We the People Act and HR4 the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Alabama Votercade was one of over 100 activities across America sponsored by a national coalition of voting rights and anti-voter suppression organizations headed by the Transformative Justice Coalition. All of the day’s activities were focused on raising awareness of the need to pass national legislation to restore the pre-clearance provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, stripped from the legislation by the 2013 Shelby vs Holder, Supreme Court decision and to counteract the many voter suppression actions of state legislatures, curtailing early voting, limiting dropboxes, increasing voter ID restrictions and other punitive measures primarily focused on discouraging and limiting the votes of Black, Brown, young and poor people. A rally was held in front of Brown’s Chapel AME Church in Selma, historic site of the start of the 1965 ‘Bloody Sunday March’ before the start of the votercade. Fay Rose Toure, Selma attorney and civil rights leader spoke about the significance of meeting at the church and in the George Washington Carver Homes, a public housing community that surrounds the church, which also housed many of the civil rights workers who took part in the original marches. Toure also announced upcoming SOS events and said we must keep our elected officials accountable to serve the people. Johnny Ford, former Mayor of Tuskegee and head of the World Council of Black Mayors said, “We’ve got to keep on marching for voting and to restore voting rights. We need to do it to honor John Lewis but also for future generations.” Former State Senator Hank Sanders said, “What we are doing today is filled with symbolism but symbols do not change things only hard work and persistence will change things and help us to pass HR1 and HR4. After we pass these bills, we will have to work even harder, longer and smarter than our opposition because as we change things they react and change their tactics and approach to challenge us. We will never win this fight against white supremacy without struggling .” Commissioner Sheila Tyson of Jefferson County said that she was organizing a statewide effort to stop local registrars from purging voter lists and wanted to fight to make the right to vote permanent. Latasha Brown, Co-Founder and Director of Black Voters Matter said that she had come to Alabama to help support local efforts to fight voter suppression. She asked the crowd to close their eyes and “Envision what would America be like without racism? Then work on creating what we envision.” Brown said the steps being taken by the legislatures in Georgia, Texas, Arizona and other places to suppress the vote is a ”reflection that we are winning, we are voting more than they expected us to vote. We have to keep voting no matter what obstacles that are put in our way.” Brown said, “We must develop a clear collective vision and work to bring it about. I know women who went door-to-door during the pandemic because they were committed to liberating everyone. Some of those people actually died of COVID fighting for people to vote and we can’t forget that or allow our opponents to diminish that.” After the rally, the cars lined up and drove the route over the Edmund Pettus Bridge headed to Montgomery. The votercade ended at a street festival in Montgomery. Persons interested in joining the struggle to advance voting rights may contact the websites of the organizations reference in this article.

  • 50th anniversary commemoration of Greene County Freedom Day honors footsoldiers of the civil rights movement

    Special to the Democrat by: John Zippert,
    Co-Publisher
    On the weekend of July 27 and 28, the Alabama Civil Rights Movement Museum sponsored a series of events to commemorate ‘Greene County Freedom Day’ on July 29, 1969.
    This is the date of a special election ordered by the U. S. Supreme Court in which four Black county commissioners and two Black school board members were elected countywide in Greene County.
    With this election, Greene County became the first county in America where Black people took political control of a county government since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
    Over the years, many other counties in the Black Belt of Alabama and other southern states also elected Black officials and some took control of their local governments. As Rev. Wendell Paris, guest speaker at the Sunday mass meeting said,
    “What the people of Greene County did fifty years ago was what democracy is all about – openly and fairly voting – to choose your own political leaders.”
    Spiver W. Gordon, President of the Movement Museum said, ”We want this celebration to honor the footsoldiers, the ordinary grassroots people of Greene County who summoned the courage and did the organizing work, precinct by precinct,to elect their own folks to political offices that made decisions for the entire county.”
    On Saturday, the Museum unveiled two monuments to young people who boycotted the schools in 1965 and started the movement and for two African-American sisters – Annie Thomas and Rosie Carpenter – who allowed their home to be used as a resting and meeting place for civil rights workers.
    At the Saturday banquet and the Sunday mass meeting the work of footsoldiers was highlighted and many received certificates of appreciation for fifty years of work and involvement in the civil rights struggle.
    At the banquet on Saturday at the Eutaw Activity Center, Veronica Morton Jones, Circuit Clerk, gave the welcome and said, “ I brought my children to the program at the monument unveiling this morning and we learned so much history of our home county that we did not know about.”
    Bill Edwards, who worked with Dr. John Cashin and the National Democratic Party of Alabama at the time of the 1969 Special Election, pointed out, “Judge Herndon deliberately left the names of the NDPA Black candidates off the November 1968 General Election ballot. Dr. Cashin had to carry Greene County officials to court for this injustice against democracy. The case went to the Supreme Court on appeal and the highest court in the land ordered a new special election on July 29, 1969. This is what we are here to celebrate tonight.”
    Circuit Judge John H. England, who served as legal counsel for the new commission gave greetings and told of his experiences in working with Greene County. “ I learned from Greene County and pursued a career as a Tuscaloosa City Councilman, Circuit Judge, Alabama Supreme Court Justice and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama,” said England.
    Lanz Alexander an SCLC Board member from Los Angeles, and Johnnie Knott, former Circuit Clerk of the county, also brought greetings. Judge Dexter Wimbush of Griffin, Georgia gave a keynote stressing the themes of jobs, justice and Jesus.
    Renetta Gail Brown, daughter of Dr. Robert Brown, the first Black School Superintendent of Greene County spoke about her experiences integrating the schools. “Greene County deserves to have a movie made about our contributions to the civil rights movement, just like Selma, we should have a movie,” she said.
    Sunday’s Mass Meeting was held at the William McKinley Branch Courthouse, name in honor of our first Black Probate Judge. Current Probate Judge, Rolanda Wedgeworth, gave the welcome.
    Sarah Duncan, a footsoldier made remarks saying, “ It has been a long hard journey to freedom; don’t stop now; keep on going, we made Greene County a better place for all people.” Jaqueline B. Allen, Rev. John Kennard and Commissioner Lester “Bop” Brown also gave greetings.
    Former State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma, said, ”I commend Brother Spiver Gordon for working to preserve the history of Greene County. If we do not study and recognize our history, we will not know where we were, where we are or where we are going. If we don’t stand on our history, our history will stand on us.”
    Chief Warhorse Gillum of Slidell, Louisiana brought greetings on behalf of the Black Indians. She said, “You need to look around you to see the contributions of the Black Indians in the mounds at Moundville and the name of Tuscaloosa, the Black Warrior chieftain.”
    Dr. Carol P. Zippert introduced Wendell H. Paris the guest speaker. As part of her introduction she said, “The Greene County Board of Education has passed a policy that Black history and Greene County history be incorporated across the curriculum in every subject. But, we are having problems getting our teachers to understand and incorporate this history into their lesson plans. We must teach our history in our homes, churches and communities.”
    Rev. Wendell H. Paris, Director of Member’s Care for the New Hope Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi gave the message. He highlighted three points, first, that the providential hand of God was involved in changing Greene County, second, that God helped people to see and participate in his political will, and third Greene County was one of the pockets of power, than Dr. King pointed out and God worked his will in changing. Greene County helped set an example for many other counties in the Black Belt.”
    Persons interested in supporting the continuing work of the Alabama Civil Rights Movement Museum, may contact: Spiver W. Gordon, P. O. Box 385, Eutaw, Alabama 35462, phone 205-372-3446; or email: spriverwgordon@hotmail.com.