Montgomery is preparing to host thousands of protestors from across the country Saturday as they demonstrate against the state’s actions to use maps that a court has ruled racially discriminatory.
The protests will begin in Selma Saturday morning as protestors cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, connecting this current moment back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
The main protest will begin in Montgomery at 1 p.m.
Civil rights and faith leaders have organized the protest, dubbed “All Roads Lead to the South”, on the National Day of Action for Voting Rights, to highlight how the Callais decision could disenfranchise Black and brown voters throughout the South. Buses have been chartered to bring attendees to Alabama from as far away as Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Jackson, Memphis, Mobile, and Nashville.
Rev. Dr. Don Darius Butle, chair of the board of directors for the Children’s Defense Fund and pastor of The Concord Fellowship of Huntsville, will bus attendees from Huntsville to Selma early Saturday morning to participate in the vigil at the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge. After that, the group will march to Montgomery to join a rally for voting rights at the Alabama state capitol building.
“There are moments history will not excuse,” Butler said. “All Roads Lead to the South names this hour as one that demands moral courage, unflinching presence, and direct action. Silence will only sustain harm and delay will only deny our collective responsibility. The time to act is not coming. It is here.”
