A historic event in the nation’s civil rights movement, the Selma-to-Montgomery march, occurred 50 years ago this month. The events surrounding the march eventually led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Experts from Florida State University are available to comment on this topic.
Davis Houck, professor, School of Communication: (850) 980-2656, [email protected]Houck’s expertise is on political advertising, news coverage and speech making. He is also an expert on the American civil rights movement, war rhetoric, propaganda and media campaigns. He helped research a documentary series about unsolved murders of black civil rights activists and co-edited “In Rhetoric, Religion and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965,” a collection of speeches given by lesser known players in the civil rights movement.
“The iconic moment that civil rights marchers proudly crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, only to retreat bloodied and bruised, stands as a threshold moment in the country's halting steps to embrace its founding tenets. Fifty years later, Selma remains a one-word anthem to that progress — and how far we still have to go.”
Patrick Mason, professor, Department of Economics: (850) 644-9146, [email protected]Mason is professor of economics and director of the African-American Studies Program. His primary areas of expertise include labor, political economy, development, education, social identity and crime. He is particularly interested in racial inequality, educational achievement, income distribution, unemployment, economics of identity, family environment and socioeconomic well-being. Mason is also the general editor of the International Encyclopedia of Race and Racism.
“Bloody Sunday and the march from Selma to Montgomery permanently changed America. It also helped create an anti-civil rights backlash that is at the core of contemporary American political conservatism.”
Franita Tolson, Betty T. Ferguson Professor of Voting Rights, College of Law: (773) 412-7842, [email protected]Tolson’s areas of expertise include election law, constitutional law, legal history and employment discrimination. Her research has been published in leading law reviews, and she has written or appeared as a commentator for various mass media outlets.
"The 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march marks an opportunity for us to revisit a critical historical and constitutional moment that stands as the high water mark of the civil rights movement. The Selma march led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is one of the most successful civil rights statutes in history. The issue that prompted the 1965 march — nondiscriminatory access to the ballot — resonates today as states place new restrictions on the right to vote and courts question the continuing need for the Voting Rights Act. Commemorating the Selma march is a way to renew our commitment to safeguard the right to vote for all people, regardless of race, creed or color."
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