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Posted by morlock on Fri Mar 3 22:22:11 2000: IP Address: 12.72.198.156

In Reply to: Clinton at Selma for 35th posted by Social Justice webmaster on Sat Feb 26 12:18:36 2000:

Clinton Takes Part in Selma Walk


By SONYA ROSS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)--Every year, John Lewis makes a pilgrimage to Selma, Ala., to recall the 1965 voting rights march where he was severely beaten. He's a congressman now, a living symbol of progress on matters of race. But Lewis says he never imagined going back to Selma with a president.

This year, almost on a lark, Lewis, D-Ga., invited President Clinton. He says he is still amazed that Clinton agreed to take part in Sunday's 35th anniversary trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

``He really wanted to come from the moment I mentioned it to him,'' Lewis said. ``The highest elected official in America paying tribute, honoring the brave men and women who marched--it is unreal, unbelievable.''
It also is typical of Clinton, whose symbolic actions on civil rights and race have become a hallmark of his presidency.

In May 1997, Clinton apologized to five elderly black men who were subjects of the government's famed Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Months later, he personally opened the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., for the nine black students who integrated it in the 1950s. Last year, he gave the Congressional Gold Medal to those same nine people and to Rosa Parks, whose refusal to surrender her bus seat was a pivotal moment in the drive that ultimately brought down segregation in public transportation.

Clinton also bestowed the Medal of Honor on seven black World War II veterans in 1997 and on a Hispanic Vietnam veteran last month. He pinned a long-denied fourth star on Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the commander of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, in December 1998. Clinton also is the first sitting president to tour Africa. He moves among people of color with such ease that he once jokingly declared himself the nation's first black president.

``This is what was expected of presidents in the past, and none of them would do it,'' said Ben Johnson, director of the White House office on One America, which Clinton established to handle racial concerns. He recalled he first heard the slang term for racial profiling _ ``driving while black''--when Clinton uttered it a few years ago.

Clinton tacked the visit to Selma onto the end of a political fundraising trip to California. Similarly, in 1996, Clinton flew overnight from California to South Carolina so he could help rebuild a black church that had been torched by an arsonist.

On March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers and sheriff's deputies broke up the attempt by lacks and white integrationists to march 50 miles to the state capitol in Montgomery to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks in Selma.

The law enforcement officers, some on horseback, used tear gas, nightsticks and hips. Some blacks retaliated with bricks and bottles. Among 17 blacks who were hospitalized was Lewis, then the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Two days later, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 1,500 blacks and whites from throughout the country in another unsuccessful effort to march to Montgomery.

Clinton plans to spend the weekend in California. In order to take part in the Selma reenactment, he will rise before dawn Sunday, fly to Montgomery, then hop a helicopter to Selma. He'll stop by the National Voting Rights
Museum there, deliver a speech, then walk across the bridge with Lewis,
members of Congress and other marchers.

AP-NY-03-02-00 1417EST Copyright 2000, The Associated Press.

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: <ul> : <h3>Clinton Takes Part in Selma Walk</h3> : By <b>SONYA ROSS</b> Associated Press Writer : </ul> : WASHINGTON (AP)--Every year, John Lewis makes a pilgrimage to Selma, Ala., to recall the 1965 voting rights march where he was severely beaten. He's a congressman now, a living symbol of progress on matters of race. But Lewis says he never imagined going back to Selma with a president. : : This year, almost on a lark, Lewis, D-Ga., invited President Clinton. He says he is still amazed that Clinton agreed to take part in Sunday's 35th anniversary trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. : : ``He really wanted to come from the moment I mentioned it to him,'' Lewis said. ``The highest elected official in America paying tribute, honoring the brave men and women who marched--it is unreal, unbelievable.'' : It also is typical of Clinton, whose symbolic actions on civil rights and race have become a hallmark of his presidency. : : In May 1997, Clinton apologized to five elderly black men who were subjects of the government's famed Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Months later, he personally opened the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., for the nine black students who integrated it in the 1950s. Last year, he gave the Congressional Gold Medal to those same nine people and to Rosa Parks, whose refusal to surrender her bus seat was a pivotal moment in the drive that ultimately brought down segregation in public transportation. : : Clinton also bestowed the Medal of Honor on seven black World War II veterans in 1997 and on a Hispanic Vietnam veteran last month. He pinned a long-denied fourth star on Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the commander of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, in December 1998. Clinton also is the first sitting president to tour Africa. He moves among people of color with such ease that he once <b>jokingly declared himself the nation's first black president</b>. : : ``This is what was expected of presidents in the past, and none of them would do it,'' said Ben Johnson, director of the White House office on One America, which Clinton established to handle racial concerns. He recalled he first heard the slang term for racial profiling _ ``driving while black''--when Clinton uttered it a few years ago. : : Clinton tacked the visit to Selma onto the end of a political fundraising trip to California. Similarly, in 1996, Clinton flew overnight from California to South Carolina so he could help rebuild a black church that had been torched by an arsonist. : : On March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers and sheriff's deputies broke up the attempt by lacks and white integrationists to march 50 miles to the state capitol in Montgomery to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks in Selma. : : The law enforcement officers, some on horseback, used tear gas, nightsticks and hips. Some blacks retaliated with bricks and bottles. Among 17 blacks who were hospitalized was Lewis, then the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Two days later, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 1,500 blacks and whites from throughout the country in another unsuccessful effort to march to Montgomery. : : Clinton plans to spend the weekend in California. In order to take part in the Selma reenactment, he will rise before dawn Sunday, fly to Montgomery, then hop a helicopter to Selma. He'll stop by the National Voting Rights : Museum there, deliver a speech, then walk across the bridge with Lewis, : members of Congress and other marchers. : : AP-NY-03-02-00 1417EST Copyright 2000, The Associated Press.

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