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SELMA FOOT SOLDIERS AWARDED CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
In a ceremony held in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall this week, a Congressional gold medal was awarded to the "foot
soldiers" of the Civil Rights Movement. Here's an excerpt from an article in the Montgomery Advertiser. -Editor
 
In 1962, Rev. F.D. Reese, who was head of the Dallas County Voters League and president of the Selma Teachers Association, wrote to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to ask that King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference come to Selma to assist in the fight of black citizens for the right to vote. King and the SCLC answered the call, and with Reese and a young John Lewis leading the efforts, the march to Montgomery was organized. On Wednesday, Reese answered a different sort of invitation. This one joined him again with Lewis, now a U.S. Representative, as the two men accepted the Congressional Medal of Freedom on behalf of all foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement. “I am certainly honored to be able to stand here and look into such beautiful faces, and to recall how good God has been,” Reese said. “He brought us from nowhere to somewhere. He allowed us to receive the great blessing that this great nation has to offer. And so I stand here today to say thank you. “Had it not been for the Lord on our side, we would have perished. He allowed us to survive many dangers, seen and unseen. I don’t know what you told Him when you woke up this morning, I told him thank you.” The ceremony was held in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall and featured speeches by Congressional leadership, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Alabama Congressional members Rep. Terri Sewell and Sen. Jeff Sessions. Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Cory Booker and Rep. Nancy Pelosi also spoke. The award was bestowed upon the group of foot soldiers last year in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and Bloody Sunday. Many of the foot soldiers honored, including Reese and Lewis, were savagely beaten by Alabama state troopers and Dallas County Sherrif’s deputies as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on their way to Montgomery. In the most famous video footage of the attack, a 25-year-old Lewis – who along with Hosea Williams led the marchers across the bridge – was the first to be hit by law enforcement officers, suffering a skull fracture. Three weeks later, led by King and under the protection of the National Guard, the group made it to Montgomery. By that time, the protests and violence had captured the attention of the nation, and it helped push through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “(King) said, ‘If you protest courageously and yet with dignity and love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say that there lived a great people who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of our civilization,’” Lewis said during Wednesday’s ceremony. “So, thank you to each and every one of you who marched, who prayed, who never gave up, who never gave in, who kept the faith and who kept their eyes on the prize. Thank you.” To read the complete article, see:
I couldn't find much online about the ceremony. I was looking for pictures, but did find this C-Span video from which I captured a
few images. -Editor
To watch the full video, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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