On March 7, 1965, 600 civil rights activists gathered to march the 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The reason? Voting rights. They walked until they reached the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where 150 Alabama state troopers were waiting. When the marchers refused to disperse, the troopers attacked with clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas.
What started as a nonviolent protest became “Bloody Sunday.” But just two weeks after the attack, the activists were gearing up to march the bridge again. Fearing more bloodshed, President Johnson contacted Alabama’s notoriously racist governor, George Wallace.
Wallace replied that Alabama had no intention of protecting the civil rights activists. So Johnson took an extremely rare step.
He overrode Wallace, approving deployment of active-duty troops and members of Alabama’s National Guard to protect the activists planning to march across the bridge. Unlike Johnson, who deployed troops to protect activists, Trump is abusing his presidential power by deploying troops to take over DC. And he plans to do the same in other cities.
Although we can’t stop Trump from acting like a tyrant, we can organize with our community and create our own plan of resistance. Black liberation is our guide and our guard.