Remembering Selma and finding inspiration for what we face today in Florida, U.S.

Miami Herald

13-03-2025

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, capping the struggle to pass the Voting Rights Act.
It was the apex of the civil rights movement — fueled mainly by the unimaginable courage of young people, from lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro to the Children's Crusade in Birmingham to the Freedom Rides to Mississippi Freedom Summer to Selma.
I was so inspired by the moral leadership of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the bravery of those in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that when we received the telegram from King at my college's student government office pleading for volunteers, my two closest friends and I boarded a bus to Selma.
Student government expertise with messy mimeograph machines got me assigned to the office at Brown Chapel to assist Rev. Andrew Young, King's lieutenant for the planned 54-mile march to confront then-Gov. George Wallace at the capitol in Montgomery.
The national response to the march and the shocking murder of Viola Liuzzo, the Detroit mother of five who also came to Selma to volunteer, and other Klan murderous violence helped secure passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
The inspiration of Selma 60 years ago stayed with me, leading to a 45-year career as director of two state ACLU affiliates fighting for civil liberties and especially voting rights.
If Selma was the apex of the civil rights movement, we are now witnessing the apex of the anti-human rights backlash — heard in President Donald Trump's absurd claim, echoed by acolytes like Gov. Ron DeSantis, that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is the source of all social ills.
This attitude has roots in resentment over the 1964 Civil Rights Act's requirement of equal accommodations and the cartoonish characterization of affirmative action as a mandate to hire unqualified minorities over more qualified white candidates. The personification of this movement seems to be Archie Bunker, the sitcom character from All in the Family.
The current hostility to human rights is also aimed at reproductive freedom, which is essential for women's equality. Unfortunately, we have yet to see that apex. Same story with regard to demonizing immigrants.
And then there is the assault on transgender youth, supported by the belief that there are no non-binary persons and that gender dysphoria does not exist. It is, they claim, a political ideology to be shunned, therefore legitimizing discrimination against trans people.
Eventually, folks will catch on to the many cons that bolster the backlash:
'We will end voter fraud and restore election integrity.' This is cover for 'we can cling to power by making it difficult for the 'wrong' people to vote.''We will restore a merit-based system. 'Anyone notice the qualifications of Trump's cabinet appointees?'We will be true defenders of free speech,' but we are OK removing books from library shelves and restricting university discussions about Black history.'We will restore sanity to our educational system.' This means that we will replace curriculum we dislike with our propaganda.
It is naive to take it for granted that our democracy can't be disassembled. Study what happened in Viktor Orban's Hungary. That's the model leaders of the backlash have in mind for the U.S.
An authoritarian right-wing populist won power in a democratic election — and then consolidated control over the judiciary, the universities, the media and other centers of dissent. Elections are manipulated to give the illusion of democracy.
Democracy needs defending. This generation has a rendezvous to cross its Edmund Pettus Bridge. Let them take inspiration from the courage and humility of leaders like the late John Lewis, a hero of Selma, rather than the arrogance and historical blindness of J.D. Vance.
Most of all, defending democracy depends on staying engaged — not retreating into silence and submission.
Howard L. Simon served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida from 1997-2018. He is president of the Clean Okeechobee Waters Foundation.