By Tyra Jackson
The Selma Times-Journal

Approximately 300 people came out to R.B. Hudson Middle School for a Saturday breakfast and to honor the Foot Soldiers of the civil rights movement.

Freedom songs were preformed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s freedom singers, as the audience sang along to anthems like “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

Congresswoman Terri Sewell made an appearance to give attendees word that H.R. 431, which honors foot soldiers with a Congressional Gold Medal, unanimously passed both the U.S. House and Senate. She also encouraged individuals to vote, as so many have sacrificed their lives for the privilege.

“I think the greatest tribute we can give to the foot soldiers is to remember to vote in every election,” Sewell said.

A man by the name of Strider “Arkansas” Benston was one of the many honored at the event. He came to Selma by foot in January 1965 and immediately jumped into organizing meetings and working with both SNCC and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“We all have stories. I have one, and I’d like to tell it,” he said. “My whole life, I’ve been denied the right to speak, and I wasn’t up there (on stage), and it hurts severely because I gave as much blood as anybody.”

Moments later, Benston was granted the chance to grace the stage and deliver his testimony, in which he sang freedom songs and talked about the beatings and hardship he endured as an activist.

Foot soldier Ballery Johnson was in the tenth grade when she first heard about mass meetings being held. She would skip school some days and attend mass meetings.

“Once my mom found out about it, she was mad, but she joined,” Johnson said.  “It was a family thing. All of my brothers and sisters were marching.”

Tired of watching her mother trying to vote, Johnson decided to take action and join the movement. She took part in sit-ins and marches. She even recalled the day she and others were in a car behind civil rights martyr Viloa Liuzzo. She said what happened to Liuzzo was heartbreaking.

It was a beautiful breakfast for fellow foot soldier Joyce O’Neal, who got to bump into a few classmates and those she marched with.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” she said. “It’s always good to remember the past, but to not get stuck in the past,” she said.