As the Old Guard of Civil Rights Finish Their March, Ours Must Continue

As the Old Guard of Civil Rights Finish Their March, Ours Must Continue

By Steven Ragsdale This past weekend, thousands gathered in Alabama for the annual Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee Celebration, retracing the famous steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where civil rights marchers once faced violence for demanding the right to vote. As the nation reflected on that history, many of today’s and yesterday’s activists also mourned the recent passing of three people who helped shape it—Bernard Lafayette Jr., one of th…

Bernard LaFayette, A Civil Rights Leader, Dies At Age 85

The Guardian - Bernard LaFayette, the advance man who did the risky groundwork for the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has died. Bernard LaFayette III said his father died Thursday morning of a heart attack. He was 85. On 7 March 1965, the beating of future congressman John Lewis and voting rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge led the evening news, shockin…