The annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee is a cultural event:  It celebrates the right to vote.  It is a historical event:  it commemorates the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson and Bloody Sunday and celebrates the Selma to Montgomery March, the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and other historical moments.

It is an economic event:  it fills hotels, eating places, service stations, and other retail establishments in Selma, Montgomery, Prattville, Birmingham, etc.  It is a social event:  people gather from across the country and indeed across the world to share their stories and their struggles.  It is a whirlwind of 40 plus events over five grueling days involving tens of thousands from thousands of places.  The Bridge Crossing Jubilee is a whirlwind.

The whirlwind started Thursday, March 3, 2011.  I made remarks at the Welcome Reception.  I was trying to capture the spirit of the Jubilee.  I didn’t really need to because the people brought their spirit.

The whirlwind continued the next day (Friday) with numerous activities ranging from the Children’s Sojourn to the Invisible Giants Conference.  That evening the whirlwind lifted the Mock Trial which tried Public Education.  It also lifted our struggle in an open forum entitled, A Public Conversation.

On Saturday, Mother Nature brought a whirlwind of rain.  Still, nearly every event continued

The whirlwind moved early on Sunday with the 7:30 a.m.  Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast.  I did the occasion and introduced Gov. Robert Bentley for one keynote speech.  The other keynote speaker was Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina.

The whirlwind came to a close on Monday with the Slow Ride from Selma to Montgomery.  Some 400 students followed the same route by bus that the marchers took by foot in 1965.  On each bus were persons sharing stories of how they personally participated in the Voting Rights Struggle.

I was one of the presenters.  At each stop, the presenters changed buses and shared anew.  The students not only learned the stories but the songs. The whirlwind finally ended but my whirlwind of activities continued.