It’s been almost 60 years since the Civil Rights Movement and the remnants that it left on the world as whole and the Black Belt in particular, is remembered by many each year as the anniversary of such a historic time comes by.

To commemorate such a historic time in history this year, Alabama Senator Robert Stewart, who serves District 23 and Alabama Representative Prince Chestnut, who serves District 67 partners together on Thursday, Jan.16 at the First Baptist Church, located on 709 Martin Luther King Street to bring the public, Selma’s 60th Criminal Justice Pre-Mass Meeting.

“It’s a kickoff celebration to really celebrate our community and it’s our contribution to the American Freedom Project and so in our contributions to make sure our democracy is realized, we want to celebrate, and we want to let our constituents know that we stand in solidarity with them. They need to see their government at work and to see us addressing our criminal justice issues, which are things that plague our community.”

Stewart said with the event, members of the public can know that they are actively working to address those issues while celebrating the legacy of freedom at the same time.

The event will kick off at 4 p.m. starting in the basement of the church where the Warrant Clinic will be held where citizens can have court in their community according to Stewart and it allows them freedom of speech without a fear of being arrested.

“If anyone has a warrant for misdemeanors or traffic violations, it is in partnership with municipal  court , district court and circuit court and so it gives us a chance to set new court dates  and we’re really kind of trying to target our constituents who have failure to appear or what they call FTAs but these are for non-violent offenses only and we just want to encourage the public to show up and address the fees that they may have to potentially get some community service and just to really be able to address the court’s back log as well.”

Stewart said even though, sometimes there is a stigma around going to court, he wants the public to know this is an open space to get things rectified and said for the warrant part of the meeting, the judges of the local court system will be there as well.

“This is our opportunity to see the community at work and to let the community know that their elected officials are working for them,” Stewart said.

As for the mass meeting held, the event will convene at 6 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary where both leaders along with the public will be honoring the past of the Black Belt including having the discussion of their efforts to recommit to justice within the Black Belt while having the focus of the event based around paving things forward to shape the Black Belt.

“When we talk about shaping our future, this is about having community input,” Stewart said. “This is about having engagement for us to create a community has to decide its future, and so we want to socialize our community and press the importance of having a vision for the future of our community, and we get to decide that, so for us when we talk about determining our future, it’s about espousing the values of self-determination.”

The keynote speaker of the historic event is Bennet Wright, who is the Executive Director of the Alabama Sentencing Commission who will welcome the event to the public and all in attendance.

“He’s been active for many years on an array of events,” Stewart said. “He’s been doing a little work at the state level on an array of criminal justice issues to make our systems more fair, more just and more efficient. So, he would be the ideal person to do the keynote speech and for us to enlighten our community about who we are as the power players in our state and who’s working. We might not see him on TV all the time, but this is an introduction to our community to understand who’s shaping policy.”

“ I just want to thank the local judges  for their collaboration, particularly Judge Wiggins for his approval and the entire circuit, District Judge Renee Perkins, Judge Wooten including Judge McGuire through their collaboration.”

Senator Stewart said the event is one that has been done locally but said it hasn’t been as in depth as this one is coming up.

“What changes with this mass meeting, is that we have not made any gains since the civil rights movement on economics, health, criminal justice, jobs, employment, housing and so each policy, each mass lien that we have, is not enough to just talk about what happens. A lot of the economic issues persist, including social issues that still persist today. And so, we want to have a policy for the public being that we know that policy can change outcomes. That’s why we want to be policy focused and advocacy focus, and not just focusing on history.”

Stewart said he encourages all community members to come out to the event to take apart in their strategizing, organizing efforts to bring change to the City of Selma in particular, and watch and listen to their efforts of recommitting to justice for those in the city who have lost their lives to gun violence and injustice as a whole.

To register for the historic event, scan the Qr code, listed below: