“Selma Alabama, 1965’ a Turning Point”

 

            I was speaking with my father Jerome Ernst, who had witnessed first hand the “Confrontation in Selma Alabama” during the height of the civil rights movement. His passion of his experience in Selma and the pride that he felt of being there and, furthermore a player at a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle is evident as he begins telling me quotes from a Catholic magazine the Extension for which he wrote and received a journalism award. He reads the words of the people he interviewed allowing for the emotion of the interview to spill out in his voice. I’ve been kicking my self for not having a tape recorder going, for I was hearing a part of history.  Even after 40 years the excitement of that day still poured forth in the telling of the event.

            I asked him to send me the article which he did as well as letters he received. These caught my eye and I became engrossed in the mind set of that day. Out of thirteen letters three of these using quotes like “Why doesn’t he take his band of imposters to Moscow” accuses Dr. King of being a communist and have links to communist organizers. One even goes so far as to state that the civil rights movement is controlled by the communists. The major two issues that are discussed besides civil rights, lay with discrediting Dr. King and his supporters by tying him to communist activity, and the other revolves around the actions of priests, nuns, and/or the directives handed down by the “brass” of the Catholic church. Over half of the responses speak on the remarkable actions of priests and nuns marching side by side with Afro-American’s and the considered radical King and his supporters. My father explained how even within the Catholic Church there was argument and conflicting orders and opinion about what was happening. Archbishop Toolen, who had Selma as his local responsibility, gave strict orders that none of his parishes would march. Dad laughed at the memory and explained how priests and nuns followed his directive about not marching; instead they organized or filled other positions that were vital to the operation. Archbishop Lucey of San Antionio gave praises to the marching nuns, on the other hand Cardinal Cushing who hailed from Boston, supported the march and issues, yet not the actions of the nuns joining in the marching and putting themselves in the way of harm. Stating that “nuns stay in the class room where they belong. I found on curios letter from a nun who speaks about Sister Mary Peter marching. I find her words powerful yet, for me confusing for I cannot tell whether she commends the actions of her sister or condemns them.  I do feel from her short two sentences that she is a woman who recognizes suffering and feels a spiritual calling to alleviate the pain of those who need help. The biggest squawk that compels a verbal response reflects the underlying unrest of a moral Christian community place in a struggle that is at fruition. The fact that a major established institution as the Catholic Church began its involvement in a social issue that was tearing at the moral conscience of America was a social milestone.

Thus began the first involvement of Northern White churches and their congregations in the civil rights “battle” movement. I say “battle” for things had become violent and bloody. Truth that some people don’t want to hear is that an un-seen player in the civil rights actions was white people were on the front lines. As we look back from the social conscious of today; we are incensed and confused by the voice and picture that they represent, that lay in the south. Even as we see these people were Christians and active in their Catholic Parish, their fear and resistance to change was a shadow of the social unrest that lay ever present in the South of the 60s.

THOR