The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation (Selma CNTR) held an election rally Monday at the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church on Broad Street.

More than 30 people were in attendance for the non-partisan event, which featured free food, musical performances and speeches from a variety of local activists.

Rev. Leodis Strong of Brown Chapel AME Church started the event by leading the contingent in prayer, in which he compared the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Moses.

“He told him to march to the county courthouse and let my people vote,” Strong said, urging those in attendance to take up the “mantle of responsibility.”

Ainka Jackson, Executive Director of Selma CNTR, briefly discussed the history of the organization and the importance of voting, holding leaders accountable for their actions and participating in government.

“There’s hope when we vote,” Jackson said. “We can’t breathe, we can’t be born, we can’t be buried without politics being involved.”

Students from the Selma High School choir led those in attendance in singing “We Shall Overcome” and other songs before Robert Stewart, Black Belt Outreach Coordinator for Congresswoman Terri Sewell addressed the crowd.

“We have politicians in office that are not about the people,” Stewart said. “They have got to go.”

Steward called on young people specifically to become involved in the political process, urging them to follow political leaders on social media and attending town hall meetings.

Kirk D. Carrington, who participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s as a young teen, also reminded young people that the struggle for civil rights continues today.

“It’s still going on,” Carrington said. “There’s no point in complaining about it if you don’t vote.”

The final speaker of the afternoon was Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed, a man whose early life was spent in gang activity but is now dedicated to ending violence. Reed serves on the Advisory Council of Selma CNTR and he is featured on the cover of TIME magazine’s recent “Guns in America” edition alongside other prominent advocates for nonviolence.

Reed talked about the history of Selma and the need for young people to rally around that history rather than devolve into violence.

“Black folks have to value that history,” Reed said. “All of the new leaders should be coming out of Selma. Get out so that we can make a change.”

Before closing the event out with another song, Jackson once more urged young people to become more involved in political action.

“No one is coming to save us,” she said. “You all, the young people, are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”