Alabama Republicans insult elders who fought and ‘won’ voting rights

This is an opinion column.

It was a moment that hit me with sudden, piercing clarity at the All Roads Lead to the South voting rights rally in Montgomery. As I stood near the stage, a woman in a wheelchair was pushed past me. I didn't know her then, but the fact that I didn't—and the context of why she was there—now infuriates me.

She positioned herself in front of the stage, holding a sign that read, Save Ourselves. Above her stood Doris Crenshaw and Courtland Cox, living conduits of American history who were there to share the lessons of the past.

History in the Making

Doris Crenshaw has been a force for justice since she was 12 years old, serving as the vice president of the NAACP Youth Council in Montgomery under the guidance of Rosa Parks. After Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to yield her seat on a bus, it was Crenshaw and her sister who canvassed their neighborhood, distributing flyers that signaled the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Alongside her, Courtland Cox brought the expertise of a seasoned strategist. A former Howard University classmate of Stokely Carmichael, Cox served as the program coordinator for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He famously worked in Lowndes County, Alabama, helping Black residents organize and form a political party that utilized the black panther as its symbol to challenge the status quo.

The Fighter in the Wheelchair

The woman in the wheelchair was Annie Pearl Avery. As Cox spoke, he reminded the crowd of her legacy. Born in Birmingham, Avery was a fierce participant in the movement, famously tempered only by the wise intervention of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth when her patience for the hostility at lunch counter sit-ins reached a boiling point.

At 83, Avery remains the oldest living participant of the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Seeing her at that rally, I could still sense the same fire in her eyes that she carried as a teenager—an expression that held both deep resolve and a palpable sense of anger that, 61 years later, she is still forced to return to the front lines.

A Call to Honor

It is a stinging failure of our nation that veterans like Avery, Crenshaw, and Cox are still compelled to wage this war. While they fought and won these rights, Republicans today are re-waging battles that threaten fair representation for African Americans and the very foundations of our democracy.

We owe these elders peace, but more importantly, we owe them the duty of continuing their work. We must ensure that while the struggle persists, the victory they secured remains firmly in our hands at 205focus.com.