March 26 Open House @ MIC Museum for Selma to Montgomery March

March 26 (Sunday):

ASU will Host A Formal Opening and Celebration of the Montgomery Interpretive Center; Tells Montgomery's History of the Famous 1965 Selma to Montgomery March

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU.

 

A formal opening and celebration of the Montgomery Interpretive Center (MIC) at Alabama State University, which celebrates Montgomery's storied history of the famous 1965 Selma to Montgomery March that helped obtain voting rights for Black citizens, will be held on March 26 (Sunday) at 3 p.m. at the MIC. The center is located on the University campus in front of The ASU Stadium on the corner of Harris Way and North University. 

 

The initial event was postponed due to the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020.

 

The opening, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by ASU's National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture (National Center) and the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail - managed by the National Park Service, explained Dr. Howard Robinson of ASU's National Center.

"We are very proud to have the Montgomery Interpretive Center located at the University because it is a major asset and honor having it here, and also because it emphasizes and highlights one of the nation's most important events of the modern Civil Rights Movement, which is the Montgomery phase of the 1965 Voting Rights struggle, ASU’s major role in it, and how it is all the culmination of the heroic struggle that helped bring freedom and equality to all citizens of our nation," Robinson said. 

 

He explains that the March 26 event will allow the local community to view the MIC exhibits free of charge and to view a photo-journalistic exhibition chronicling the Voting Rights campaign of 1965 with a focus on the Selma to Montgomery March, which was curated by ASU Professor Cleve Webber, from the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

PANEL DISCUSSION ON MODERN THREATS TO VOTING RIGHTS

 

Robinson stated that since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideal of a “Beloved Community” has yet to be obtained, the sponsors have included a panel discussion that will examine the current threats that attempt to impede American voting rights, such as the recent Merrill v. Milligan case, which is now being considered by the United States Supreme Court. 

 

"We will also have present participants and supporters of the 1965 Voting Rights Campaign who were on the ground assisting Dr. King and Selma's civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. F.D. Reese (ASU class of 1951) as they struggled to make the campaign a reality despite the cost incurred in lives lost and people injured and jailed," Robinson said.

For event information: Bradly Pettway, 334.229.6888 or bpettway@alasu.edu.  

 

News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.

 

###ASU###