Posted by Dr. Robert Jaurequi on Fri Jul 2 01:19:29 2004: IP Address: 24.126.218.147
In Reply to: Re: Clinton schedule posted by morlock on Thu Mar 2 00:09:47 2000:
: Selma Times Journal 3/1/99
: President's Plans Finalized
: Visit to Brown AME Chapel left off of itinerary
: By Jonathan McElvy The Selma Times-Journal
: Published Wednesday, March 01, 2000 8:33 PM CST
: President Bill Clinton will arrive in Selma at noon Sunday and will depart a few hours later after
: marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The President will not visit Brown AME Chapel during
: his visit.
: Sarah Gegenheimer, of the White House Press Office, confirmed on Wednesday the President's
: plans for this weekend.
: "The President will arrive at a Montgomery airport at 11 a.m. Sunday," Gegenheimer said. She
: would not confirm which airport, but Air Force One most likely will land at Maxwell Air Force
: Base. "He will then leave Montgomery on a helicopter and arrive in Selma probably 20 minutes later,"
: Gegenheimer said. The President usually travels on Marine One, his helicopter.
: Gegenheimer would not say where the President would land in Selma, but it's likely to be Craig
: Airport.
: After the President lands in Selma, he will motorcade to the National Voting Rights Museum,
: where he will tour that building for about 15 minutes, according to Gegenheimer.
: "When he completes his tour of the Voting Rights Museum, President Clinton will join the speaking
: program at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge," Gegenheimer said. "There, he will make
: his remarks to the people of Selma."
: Plans are not confirmed concerning the speaking program, but sources say Clinton will join Rep.
: John Lewis (D-Ga.), Rev. Jerome Harris of Brown Chapel and some local youth on a stage set up
: at Songs of Selma Park. Other speakers for the event have not been announced.
: Selma Mayor Joe Smitherman said his role in the event will be limited.
: "I'll do whatever they ask me to do," he said.
: "This is not the city's event. We support it and will do everything we can to help."
: Smitherman said Sam Walker of the Voting Rights Museum has contacted him about sitting
: in a roped off, VIP area.
: "I don't even think Gov. Siegelman is going to be on the stage," Smitherman said. "He's probably
: going to be seated where I am."
: After Clinton gives his speech, he then will march across the bridge as part of the re-enactment.
: However, Gegenheimer did say that Clinton will not march with the rest of the re-enactors.
: "He will go ahead of everyone else," she said.
: After Clinton crosses the bridge, he will then get back in the motorcade and travel back to the
: helicopter landing site and depart for Montgomery, according the Gegenheimer.
: "He's going to leave right after the march because there will be people coming from right
: behind him and we don't want him to get run over," she said.
: There's one thing quite obviously missing from the President's itinerary. Nowhere is there a stop
: scheduled for Brown AME Chapel, where the 1965 march began and where Martin Luther King
: Jr. delivered a sermon.
: Nancy Sewell, a member of the Selma City Council and member of the board of trustees at
: Brown Chapel, was distraught after hearing the news.
: "I am very greatly disturbed," Sewell said. "I really felt he would want to retrace Martin's footsteps.
: And Brown was prepared to have speakers outside."
: Indeed, workers at Brown Chapel could be seen last week painting the stairs at the historic
: church, where a bust of King guards the church.
: Rev. Harris could not be reached Wednesday night for comment. He supposedly was in a
: meeting with representatives from Washington, still discussing plans for Sunday.
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