Dear editor,

As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the passing of the Voting Rights Act signed in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson and commemorate the Selma Jubilee Bridge crossing and Selma to Montgomery March, these thoughts occurred to me:

What if there were not Dallas County Voter League members such as: Ernest Leon Doyle, John D. Hunter, Ulysses S. Blackmon Sr, Edward Gildersleeve, Dr. Frederick D. Reese, Marie Foster, Dr. Amelia Boynton-Robinson and Henry Shannon Sr?

What if these men known as the courageous eight would have remained satisfied with eight blacks registered to vote out of a population of 25,000 in the city of Selma and Dallas County?

What if the courageous eight had not had the courageousness to meet secretly and united to plan and strategize ways for blacks to vote?

What if they had not stood to defend and restore the rights of mankind given to us by the United States of America’s Constitution; standing strongly against the injustices and the Jim Crow Laws of the South?

What if these men and women had not committed their lives for equality, civil rights and the betterment of all mankind?

What if the courageous eight had accepted the offer from the justice department to clear their records to have all injunctions dropped and leveled against them? What if they would stop marching, stop boycotting and stop demonstrating at lunch counters in the segregated businesses and streets of Selma and around Dallas County?

Instead they replied:”Only death can stop us.”

What if the courageous eight had not been in Selma, unified and all had the same goals for the Selma community at the same time?

What if the steering committee of the DCVL would not have invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC to Selma?

What if Mr. Ernest Leon Doyle had not held the N.A.A.C.P. alive for 25 years when it was considered a terrorist organization by Gov. George Wallace?

What if there had not been courageous black men that had the guts to run for city council? Mr. Doyle was the first publicly announced city councilman since the reconstruction era.

What if they had refused their call?

But they all accepted.

Fearlessly, unselfishly, and untiringly, they did.

And their actions started a Selma movement.

They choose to put forth efforts so that we today can achieve a better education, work on better jobs and enjoy a better life-style. Moreover, so that we can experience a feeling of equality.

Their actions started a movement that has extended and has become known throughout the world.

Young people, there was a price paid.

Freedom was not free. The struggle continues.

In this generation, where are the eight?

Where do we go from here? We are calling for “the eight”

What if you are one of “the eight”?

Carolyn King
Selma