In front of the statue. The Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement is the host. Learn more about the pilgrimage to sites where civil rights workers were slain. <\/p>\n
Momentum appears to be growing for the Freedom Riders for Vot-ing Rights Never Forget, Never Again Pilgrimage in Mississippi on April 30 and in Alabama on May 1. Co-sponsoring organizations have grown to 17. <\/p>\n
The Pilgrimage is one in a series of activities organized to support Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because its constitutionality is being challenged by Shelby County, Alabama. A large rally was held at the U.S. Supreme Court when they heard oral arguments in the Shelby case on February 27, and was followed by a Freedom Rider stop and rally in Richmond, Charlotte, Greenville, Atlanta, Birmingham and Mont-gomery. The Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc., filed a brief to the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. <\/p>\n
A Pilgrimage was also conducted on April 4 at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., monument in Atlanta. April 4th is the day that Dr. King was murdered. <\/p>\n
The Freedom Riders will be met by Mississippi co-sponsors for stops in Jackson at the Medgar Evers Library and Statue for a press conference. The Freedom Riders will then drive by the Evers home that is presently under construction. The pilgrimage will proceed to Tougaloo College, Woodworth Chapel, where they will join with civil rights activists, students and the general public for a memorial service honoring mar-tyrs of the Voting Rights Movement. In the afternoon, they will journey to Philadel-phia to honor the memory of the James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The bus will leave Mississippi for Alabama where they will meet Bernard Lafayette, who was the Director of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committees (SNCC) Alabama Voter Registration Project. Lafayette was slated to be assassinated on the same day as Medgar Evers. <\/p>\n
The Pilgrimage will make stops in Marian, Alabama where Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed, in Selma where Rev. James Reeb was killed, in Lowndes County where Jonathan Daniels and Viola Liuzzo were killed, and in Tuskegee where Sammy Younge was killed. The Pilgrimage will end with a rally at the Ala-bama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. <\/p>\n
Leading up to the Pilgrimage in Jackson on April 29, a caravan of cars will travel to Liberty, Mississippi where Herbert Lee and Louis Allen were killed and to Hattiesburg where Vernon Dahmer was killed. They will meet up with the Freedom Riders bus in Jackson on April 30. <\/p>\n
The co-sponsoring organizations include: Alabama New South Coalition Alabama Democratic Conference Ancient Africa, Enslavement and Civil War Museum Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Inc. Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP Mississippi Student Justice Alliance Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights National Action Network National Coalition of Leaders to Save Section Five (NCLSS) National Coalition on Black Civic Participation National Policy Alliance National Voting Rights Museum and Institute Rainbow PUSH Coalition Save Ourselves Summit Southern Christian Leadership Conference Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc. World Conference of Mayors Women of Will <\/p>\n
The public is cordially invited to meet the Pilgrimage at each stop. <\/p>\n
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The rest is here: <\/p>\n
Freedom Riders Pilgrimage Stop<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In front of the statue. Continue reading