On Tuesday, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL, talked about how we should use the history that Selma is part of as a way to grow our community economically.

There is a lot of potential that Selma and Dallas County has, but we cannot move forward without addressing where we’ve been and where we are now as a community.

Sewell said we have a lot of history, both good and troublesome, that we must not run away from but instead embrace.

The people from this are that were part of history in 1965 have paved the way for all of us to have the right to vote and to live equally.

What a feeling to say we now live where that happened.

If we build on our history, we can attract more here.

Sewell’s plan to grow the Selma Interpretive Center and the housing authority’s plans to revitalize the GWC neighborhood could be the start of moving our community forward. It is not just these ideas, but it is a start.