National

Selma Civil Rights March Still Vivid for US Rep John Lewis

Published

8 years ago

January 8, 2015

In this March 7, 1965 file photo, John Lewis, center, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is forced to the ground by a trooper as state troopers break up the demonstration on what has become known as “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo)

ALEX SANZ, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Forty-nine years after John Lewis and fellow marchers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, the memories of “Bloody Sunday” are still vivid in his mind. It was one of the defining moments of the civil rights era.

“We were beaten, tear gassed, trampled and chased by men on horseback,” said Lewis, a civil rights activist and longtime Democratic congressman from Georgia. “Many of us accepted the way of non-violence as a way of life, as a way of living. We were willing to be arrested, to be jailed. We accepted the beatings. And we never gave up.”

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Lewis — who is portrayed by the actor Stephan James in the historical drama “Selma” — said the timing of the film’s release was fitting and appropriate after protests of grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men in Ferguson, Missouri; and New York.

“Selma,” the film co-written and directed by Ava DuVernay, is based on the 1965 marches from the Alabama cities of Selma to Montgomery, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is very powerful. It is very moving. It is real. It is so real,” Lewis said. “It says something about the distance we’ve come in laying down the burden of race.”

The son of sharecroppers, Lewis grew up on a family farm outside Troy, Alabama, and attended segregated public schools. During the civil rights movement, he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1963, he addressed the historic March on Washington — two years before he and hundreds of others marched on “Bloody Sunday.”

On March 7, 1965, Lewis and others were beaten by state troopers as they began to march to Montgomery.

The march is credited with helping build momentum for passage that year of the landmark Voting Rights Act, which opened polling places to millions of blacks and ended all-white governments in the South.

“We broke down those signs that said, ‘White Waiting,’ ‘Colored Waiting,’ ‘White Men,’ ‘Colored Men,’ ‘White Women,’ ‘Colored Women.’ We got a Voting Rights Act passed 50 years ago, a Civil Rights Act passed. But, we still have a distance to go,” said Lewis.

“In many communities today, the question of race is still very real. You can feel it. You can almost taste it. But, you cannot deny the fact that America is a different America. Even in the heart of the Deep South, those signs are gone. And, they will not return. People registered. And, they are voting.”

Lewis was first elected to Congress in 1986. He was re-elected to a 15th term in November.

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Oakland Teachers Strike Continues Over Wages, ‘Common Good’ Demands for Needs of Parents, Students

The OEA’s common good proposals are based on outreach with thousands of OUSD parents and community members. California districts that have bargained common good demands with teacher unions include Los Angeles Unified, Natomas Unified, Montebello Unified, San Diego Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, and Jurupa Unified.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 14, 2023

Ken Epstein

Teachers show their determination on picket lines at schools across the city. Photo courtesy of OEA.

By Ken Epstein

The strike of Oakland’s 3,000 teachers and other school staff is ending its first full week. Both sides are moving closer to a settlement, which could come soon, though observers close to the bargaining table say possibilities still exist for negotiations to break down.

Both sides appear to be near agreement on salary issues. The Oakland Unified School District is offering nearly $70 million in raises for teachers and other members of the Oakland Education Association, including nurses, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and substitutes.

A recent OUSD proposal offers an increase for first-year teacher salaries from $52,905 to about $63,000 and an increase for educators at the top of the salary scale from $98,980 to over $110,000.

A major sticking point has been the union’s “common good” demands, especially the demand for shared decision-making at community schools, which would mean that parents and teachers would have the right to vote on how money is spent at their schools.

In an interview with the Oakland Post, Ismael “Ish” Armendariz, OEA’s interim president, said, the district and some board members do not want to give up some of their authority to shared decision making. “They want to control,” he said.

“Under shared governance, people get to vote collectively on how the money at school sites is spent, not just advise the district, which is free to disregard the advice. That’s where the big disconnect is (in negotiations),” he said.

Other common good proposals include mental health services for students, support for unhoused students, implementation of OUSD’s Reparations for Black Students policy, limit or halt the closing of schools in flatland communities and protection and expansion of programs for students with disabilities.

Approved by the board in 2021, the Reparations for Black Students policy is designed to improve academic achievement and enrollment for Black students. The union’s proposal would give OEA the authority to select teacher members of the task force the resolution created.

The district has wanted to limit negotiations to traditional wage and hours issues. But the union says though wages are crucial to provide stability and a living wage for educators, these other issues also directly impact parents, students, and teachers.

“Our schools face safety concerns ranging from gun violence to asbestos and lead to mice and rat infestations to raw sewage to leaky roofs,” according to a union statement.

Teachers’ union President Ismael “Ish” Armendariz speaks to press at school picket line. Photo courtesy of OEA.

Speaking at an OUSD press conference Monday, Board President Mike Hutchinson opposed the common good proposals.

“While we agree on the principles of the (common good) proposals, they simply do not belong in the contract language,” he said.

Three school board members who are sympathetic to the union’s demands, VanCedric Williams, Valarie Bachelor and Jennifer Brouhard, held their own press conference Monday to clarify their position to the public and to push Hutchinson and Boardmembers Sam Davis and Dr. Clifford Thompson to negotiate on the union’s common good proposals.

Bachelor told the Oakland Post that the common good proposals have grown in importance since the pandemic.

“The pandemic has made it really clear about the inequities in the community and what happens when we don’t address them. The bread-and-butter issues are important, but I’m glad the OEA has brought these common good demands to the community attention, to the state’s attention,” she said.