Charles Dale speaks at an NAACP convention. Dale is a coordinator for the upcoming America’s Journey for Justice.

By Alison James

alison.james@fct.wpengine.com

Coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery march and the crossing of the Edmund Pettus bridge, plans are now being made for another march to Washington, D.C.

America’s Journey For Justice will begin in Selma Aug. 1 and wind through cities in Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina and Virginia before ending in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15 – a distance of almost 900 miles. The Rev. Charles Dale, 74, of Russellville, is the NAACP Alabama coordinator for the event, which holds a special place in his heart, since he was also part of the first march in 1965.

“Black folks were having all kinds of problems trying to vote,” Dale said. Those problems, he added, are still continuing today, in forms like gerrymandering and voter ID laws and the recent Shelby County vs. Holder, which overturned a portion of the Voting Rights Act. These are the problems that America’s Journey for Justice will seek to address.

Marchers will also use the platform to speak and raise awareness on issues like minimum wage, “black lives matter” and police brutality. A special voting rights rally and march will help lead up to the event June 19-21 in Calera and Columbiana, with speakers including Hilary O. Shelton of the NAACP and Marcia Johnson-Blanco of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Voting Project.

Dale said the focus will be “making sure that the laws be fulfilled that are on the books, as far as the Constitution is concerned” and that black citizens are treated fairly at the polls. This march, with its associated educational events, is expected to raise awareness of the importance of those goals.

“If we go up there, and we have put forth this trouble to march to Washington again, it’s letting Congress, the Senate, the federal government know that we are serious about what we’re doing,” Dale said. “We’re not out here playing and just asking for something. We’re putting time, effort and work into it.

“People died, were abused, misused, ridiculed … so that we would have the right to vote,” he added.

“I’m serious. I’ve got it from here,” he said, tapping his chest. “If I had to lay down my life and die for it, I would do it. That’s why I’m still working and trying … It’s just something that needs to be done.”

Dale said they hope for up to 250 marchers, some of whom will only march certain legs of the journey. Medical personnel and buses will be on hand for anyone who needs medical attention or a break from marching, and accommodations and meals are being lined up along the march route.

To find out for information, search America’s Journey for Justice online or call Dale at 256-460-7962.