Organizers of the annual Bridge Crossing in #Selma are upset President Obama is having a seperate but equal march on Friday to commemorate Bloody Sunday

Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said Friday he had hoped President Barack Obama would move his planned visit to Selma from Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 8 to better accommodate local commemorations of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Sanders was joined by (left to right) Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery; Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery; Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery and Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed.(Photo: Brian Lyman/Advertiser)

 Let's recap.

The White House announced President Obama plans to visit #Selma on March 7, 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which was gutted under his administration, but I digress.  There is just one little problem....the organizers of the annual event are upset President Obama decided to come to #Selma on Friday, March 7, instead of  Sunday, March 8.  As a matter of fact, organizers didn't even know the President was planning to attend until they heard about it from via the media.  That's a nice way of saying he invited himself, which is fine, he is the President of the United States of America, but it seems like he's making it about politics and not about the substance of the annual occasion.

The annual march, usually held on a Sunday in the first week of March, has been planned by state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, and others annually since the 1970s. Sanders and other leaders said they were blindsided by Obama's announcement -- made in conjunction with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. -- that the president would march on the anniversary date: March 7.
Sanders said there is a very specific reason for a Sunday march -- to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," that day on March 7, 1965, when state police beat marchers attempting to walk from Selma to Montgomery.
The marchers were stopped on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and driven back. The incident was recently captured in the Paramount film, "Selma."
Sanders said it has always been especially poignant that the civil rights marchers were beaten on a Sunday.
The 1965 march, which was eventually successful later in March 1965, was seen as helping pass the U.S. Voting Rights Act, which invalidated state laws designed to keep blacks from voting.
Sanders said any attempt to hold two marches, one on March 7 and one on March 8, would be "divisive," and would send the wrong signals to the world.

You think?  I agree with what Hank Sanders said:

"We are always glad when the president comes, but the Bloody Sunday march is sacred," said Sanders, joined at the podium by Democratic Montgomery representatives Alvin Holmes, John Knight and Thad McClammy; Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed and Tuskegee mayor Johnny Ford. "It's sacred of that blood that was spilled on that Sunday . . . it's sacred because it's been commemorated every year, for 40-some years, and we intend that sacredness shall be preserved."

That's a nice way of saying you are hurting and not helping Mr. President Obama, Sir.

The anniversary date is something Sanders said the march organizers never focused on in their decades of commemoration. Instead, the march organizers focused on a Sunday march near the date of March 7.
And it's that tradition that people have planned around for the last year, Sanders said -- targeting March 8 for the 50th anniversary march. Sanders said Obama's announcement has thrown things into a state of confusion, and that people from all over the nation -- people with plans, reservations and travel schedules -- have been calling local organizers with questions.

Bloody Sunday is not about celebrating President Obama, it's about remembering the blood, sweat, tears, and personal sacrifice of those who suffered  and died so an African American could someday be elected President of the United States.  Selma is not about a photo op.  It's about HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in.

Now if President Obama is coming to Selma on Friday to pardon for former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman that's another story....

Free-Don Siegelman Sunday

U.S. Representative John Lewis (left) and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth lead a group on a tour of Kelly Ingram Park. Congress members toured the park in Birmingham during the annual civil rights event on March 8, 2003. (Jeremy Bales/The Birmingham News)

"Don't give up. Don't give out. Don't give in." Congressman John Lewis, in Huntsville today, reflecting on 50 years of the Civil Rights Movement.~Fist dap JB

Troy Alabama native, and Civil Rights hero, Congressman John Lewis (D. GA) came to town last weekend as part of the  Huntsville/Madison County Public Library Black History Program.  If you were unable to attend the event as I was and you  had to depend on The Huntsville Times for information, you would learn he was introduced by the Mayor, presented a key to city, Lewis said "We're one people; one family",  received a standing ovation, and everyone joined hands to sing We Shall Overcome Someday.

Supporters of former Governor Don Siegelman aren't giving out, giving in, or giving up. Following the event, activist Pam Miles,  and Siegleman's son Joseph approached Congressman Lewis with a folder of letters written on Governor Siegleman's behalf  which the Congressman promised to deliver to the President, in addition to writing one of his own.  I have renewed hope, wrote Miles.

Daughter Dana Siegelman is not giving out, giving in, or giving up either, she is Mobilizing for Freedom, inviting people to join them on March 3, in Selma Alabama in commemoration of Bloody Sunday, where Congressman Lewis had his head bashed by Alabama State Troopers,  one of the Civil Rights Movement's most extraordinary examples of perseverance and not giving up on freedom.

Former Governor Don Siegelman is not giving out, giving in, or giving up despite being in prison for over 400 days for being too Liberal for Alabama.

He is strong; he is charismatic; he is positive, but he is extremely disappointed. It is not the separation, which hurts him, for he is closer to his family than ever. It is not the lack of freedom, which causes him grief, for he cherishes the time he has to work on his book, coach the young men around him, read, and grow spiritually. He is not crippled by the fact that he has spent more than a year in prison, he is burdened by the greater injustice that surrounds him - the use of the justice system as a political weapon, concealed, quiet, and effective. He wants change.

Justice delayed is Justice Denied.

Today's Black History Must Read

 On this day, 45 years ago, three men were killed and 27 were wounded on the campus of South Carolina State College in a violent series of events that would become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.