Activist Spotlight: Jeff Blum
Jeff alongside other members of the Workers Circle’s delegation to Selma.
Going to the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL
Two weekends ago, my wife, cousin and I joined Workers Circle’s delegation to the Selma Jubilee, an annual celebration of the civil rights movement, including its violent and bloody costs and the great victory of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. We also visited the Legacy Museum in Montgomery. It was a deeply powerful experience.
The event was overwhelmingly Black-led and with a big presence of Alabamians, young and old. This is sadly rare in “movement” activities in this era – and very inspirational.
We experienced a powerful organizing lesson – that when you want depth in communities, find existing networks and work through them, build the power of their leadership. We saw many Black fraternities and sororities, a huge contingent of the Order of the Eastern Star (women) and Prince Hall Masons (men), even a small motorcycle club of descendants of Buffalo Soldiers.
We are best when we pair our new, entrepreneurial groups with existing, rooted ones. Selma reminded me that the deeper the roots, the longer they last and the broader they can spread.
Our trip included a fabulous young leader, Collins Pettaway III, leader of the Center for Common Ground’s Democracy Center in Selma.
The civil rights movement included white people, Christian and Jewish, who were important allies – some got essentially forced out of town for their participation. This was a majority movement and a Black freedom movement rolled into one – not one or the other. Selma reminded me of the need to build trust by investing in alliances over time.
Selma was and remains a stunningly poor place, ⅓ smaller than in 1965 as job stagnation drove many people, Black and white, away. Yet people of good will keep trying to find ways forward. Of course, the current federal and state governments will walk away from their obligations to help, despite centuries of aligning with building a racialized, unequal economy.
This Jubilee is likely the largest annual celebration of a social movement in one place in America. It makes history come alive. In a rollicking and tear-jerking service at the Historical Tabernacle Baptist Church, Rev. Al Sharpton left us with this: “If you’ve come to Selma to walk across that bridge and take a picture, don’t come. This is marching time, not standing still time.”
Below is a sketch Jeff did of the Edmund Pettus Bridge while in Selma
