55 years ago, Alabama State Troopers under orders from Democrat governor George Wallace viciously attacked and beat unarmed, nonviolent black protesters as they marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. Organizer Amelia Boynton was beaten unconscious, Jimmie Lee Johnson was shot in the stomach and later died, and 16 other protesters were hospitalized as they attempted to march to Montgomery, the state capital. Two weeks later they attempted the march again, and this time succeeded in their peaceable, nonviolent attempt at protesting.
Fast forward to March 1, 2020. On the 55th anniversary of the attacks and beatings, members of the Brown Chapel AME Church found Democrat candidate Mike Bloomberg in their midst, making a campaign speech. A dozen of them stood and turned their backs on him in a peaceful protest of his stand on "Stop and Frisk", remaining that way until his speech was over.
No word on whether Bloomberg took the hint. At least he didn't send armed troops after them as his fellow Democrats did 55 years ago. Things may be looking up.
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https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...2rq-story.html
Congregants turn their backs on Mike Bloomberg inside Selma, Ala., church
by Shant Shahrigian
New York Daily News
Mar. 1, 2020 | 1:46 PM
With Democratic presidential candidates blitzing states set to vote on “Super Tuesday” this week, a handful of congregants at a historic black church in Selma, Ala., delivered a stunning rebuke of Mike Bloomberg on Sunday.
Ten minutes into his remarks about voter suppression and the civil rights movement, about a dozen churchgoers stood up and turned their backs to the candidate, where they silently stayed in place for the duration of the speech.
It was the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers viciously attacked black civil rights activists who marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
Gathered at the Brown Chapel AME Church just blocks away from the bridge, the anti-Bloomberg churchgoers seemed to evoke the legacy of nonviolent protest immortalized on March 7, 1965.
While they didn’t utter a word, the signal they sent was loud and clear: They don’t want the ex-mayor who once championed stop-and-frisk for president.
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