On a bright, sunny, windy day &045; the day following Sunday’s Bridge Crossing Jubilee &045; more than 200 school children from three counties boarded five buses to retrace the steps of

Voting Rights marchers 39 years ago. Participating were students and adult sponsors from public schools in Dallas, Lowndes and Wilcox counties and Selma City Schools. School buses were provided by each of the districts. The tour was sponsored by the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute, which also sponsored Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The event was planned and led by Faya Ora Rose Toure of the Voting Rights Museum, Sen. Hank Sanders and Rita Lett, a member of Sanders’ staff. A half dozen or so of the &uot;invisible giants&uot; &045; participants in the original march &045; rode with the students on the buses, talking about the original journey and various notable sites along the way.

The bus-car caravan began at the foot of the Pettus Bridge at 9 a.m. on Monday and proceeded with state trooper escort along Highway 80E. Also present was part of the National Parks Service film crew which is working on a video on the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail.

The group stopped for a brief lunch break at Canaan Hill Primitive Baptist Church, about 30 miles east of Selma, one of the stopping points on the original march.

The caravan

was scheduled to conclude the march, as did the original marchers, with stops in Montgomery at City of St. Jude, the federal courthouse and the State Capitol, where a rally was to be held.

According to Lynda Lowery, who participated in the original march at age 15 &045; she turned 15 during the trip &045; the focus on this event was the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed school desegregation.