Selma  City Councilwoman Miah Jackson challenged residents to step up and help improve the city.

The Ward 3 Councilwoman delivered a presentation in her Residence in Service Equally United in Partnership (RISE UP) at Tuesday’s City Council meeting at City Hall.

Jackson’s 10-minute video presentation displayed the city’s past, present and future. Images of Dr. Martin Luther King, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama revolved around the lyrics of Andra Day’s Grammy-nominated hit song from 2015, “Rise Up.”

“Citizens of Selma are familiar with battles and struggles through family stories or personal involvement in the movements that shaped the history of our state, country and even the world,” Jackson said. “Selma is a City where resilience and grit are virtues fed to its children like southern cornbread and sweet tea. 

“This recurrent diet of perseverance through struggle has empowered us with a certain steadfastness and hope in God enabling us to rise up to adversities and hardships,” Jackson said. “Rise up when personal responsibility and accountability calls us to higher altitudes and rise up to new aspirations.  Selma, we will Rise Up to a better future.”

Five local ministers and two local companies assisted Jackson with RISE UP.

The ministers were: Pastor Steve Burton of Cornerstone Church, Pastor Judge Robert Armstrong of Bluejean Church, Pastor Lance Eiland of Church Street Methodist, Pastor Jerry Light of First Baptist Church and Rector Jack Alvey of St. Paul Episcopal Church.

Rayco Industrial and Steward Properties were the companies that sponsored RISE UP. Ray Harrellson of Rayco Industrial and Darrell Steward of Steward Properties attended the presentation.

After the presentation, Jackson handed the pastors and Steward and Harrellson each a glassed frame of her poem, “RISE UP Selma.”

The RISE UP campaign will be at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 14 at Cornerstone Church to start trash cleanup in Ward 3.

“RISE UP isn’t just about Ward 3, it’s about the whole city,” Jackson said. “I’d like to thank the businesses and residents for staying in Selma. The best is yet to come. Better days are ahead. We need to come together, and put our pride and politics aside to change the narrative in Selma.”