I is for "I Was There"

It's "I" Week at ABC Wednesday, and much of the 50th anniversary

 of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights marches this month has focused

 on the "I Was There" theme honoring foot soldiers.

I happened to be in Songs of Selma Park on Sunday trying to get

 a decent picture of the bridge filled with thousands of people

 when Foot Soldier George Sallie walked up accompanied by his niece.

 They were there to get a picture too, and I noticed the medal around his neck. 

He told me that when he returned home to Selma

 after serving his country in Korea, he thought he had earned

 the privilege to vote. So he began working to help secure voting rights.

 Sallie was 35 years old on "Bloody Sunday." and when he saw the line

 of law enforcement officers on the Selmont side of the bridge,

 he and a friend tried to quickly figure out whether they should

 move forward toward the line, turn around toward Selma 

or jump off the bridge. They turned around and ran but not before 

he was hit on the head. He still wears a visible scar on his forehead,

 "just a little laceration," according to Sallie, who still lives just across the bridge. 

Linking to ABC Wednesday

and City Daily Photo Blogs