Blog Detail

By Faith Callens
Source: The Selma Times-Journal

Thursday night, the sanctuary of the Tabernacle Baptist Church was filled with members of the Selma community and leaders alongside new faces within the pews who were visiting to have closer view of the history that took place during the Civil Rights movement and to officially commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The meeting started off with greetings and a prayer from the Rev. Dr. Otis Dion Culliver, who is the current pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church to all who were in attendance and the Dallas County Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn was the next speaker who reminded everyone in the room just how their presence was crucial this weekend to the city of Selma and the historic events happening locally. “Thank you for your presence in Dallas County,” Nunn said. “This week affords us the opportunity to look back and reflect on history, on our leaders, on our ancestors. It’s very important that you realize and that you know the pivotal role that Selma played in shaping the entire world. As you take the experience this weekend, as you highlight the good points, the history and as you walk across the Edmund Pettus bridge, it’s not all about the food that you eat and it’s not all about the good times that you have down here in Selma. It’s not all about the people you meet or the souvenirs you take back with you. Please don’t forget the sacrifices that the people have made.”

While there was a lot of applause in the air for Nunn’s speech, he also reminded those who were in attendance of the dangers a mass meeting
would have caused in 1965 at the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, where the first mass meeting was held sixty years ago.

“It was dangerous for churches to hold mass meetings and tonight, our mass meeting is held without any repercussions and we can be here tonight without anyone coming out to get us and it’s okay to be here to commemorate all of these activities and the festivities that we have, but don’t you dare forget that we still have a long way to go in the United States and this nation has continued to fight right to correct history.”

Co-Founder of the Jubilee and retired Alabama State Sen. Hank Sanders spoke at the event as well, speaking about TBC and how back then, brave members risked the church being burned and bombed up just to be able to host the first official mass meeting and the events that acted as a precursor to the jubilee as we know it today. “The Jubilee started in 1992 and grew to be the largest annual gathering of people interested
in rights and in civil rights and 10s of 1000s of people would come over the weekend,” Sanders said. That’s the same spirit we need now.”

Right after Sanders, the City of Selma Mayor James Perkins spoke and talked about the economic growth that Selma has develop right before Jubilee and the upcoming projects that are in store for the city.

Perkins also spoke his mother’s sudden passing and how his mother’s legacy impacted the civil rights movement being that she was in the first graduating class in the school of Nursing at the Good Samaritan Hospital and she helped with the treatment of Jimmy Lee Jackson when he was shot in Selma.

During the mass meeting, there was also songs from the freedom singers, a memorial tribute held to recall the sacred memory of the Martyrs of the movement including a conversation with Dr. Bernard Layette, explaining the breakdown of the first mass meeting, where he spoke about the importance of strategizing during such a crucial time back then among other factors to bring upon change.

Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson also spoke about “The Tabernacle Story” just before the meeting had their offertory period, expressing the need of help with the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma and the efforts to keep the city’s mission alive to preserve the civil rights history.

The meeting also included a call to action message from Dr. Ben Chavis alongside a well-thought out sermon from Dr. Willie D. Francios, III to bring upon pivotal change to African Americans about the thought process of living in America despite the odds that could be brought against them and how recognize and walk within their power.