A local civil rights leader is being celebrated in Selma today.
Caravans are driving throughout the neighborhoods where pastor and educator Dr. F.D. Reese lived and worked today. Reese was instrumental in bringing John Lewis and Martin Luther King, Jr. to Selma during the 1965 civil rights movement.
Collins Pettaway sees Reese as a mentor and is producing the holiday’s festivities. He said it’s important for Selma to honor its local activists.
“Unfortunately, Dr. Reese has not been properly recognized as he should have been. And there’s so many people in the movement, that every now and then sometimes people get left out. Unfortunately, Dr. Reese has been one of those persons. And so, honestly this has been well overdue,” he said.
Pettway emphasized that Selma sets an example for the world in using its history to promote progress.
“A lot of us say this a lot: so goes Selma, so goes the world. I believe that Selma will stand as the foundation and the blueprint for the world when it comes to truth and reconciliation.”