Selma and Dallas County have welcomed back hundreds to thousands of movement footsoldiers, tourists, politicians and activists who ceremonially cross the Pettus Bridge to commemorate the sacrifices of those who bled for democracy. Thursday s storm inflicted heavy damage on Selma, cutting a wide path through the downtown area, where brick buildings collapsed, oak trees were uprooted, cars were tossed onto their sides and power lines were left dangling.
As a deadly storm system that spawned tornadoes across parts of the U.S. South, Zakiya Sankara-Jabar’s cellphone buzzed relentlessly. Text messages and calls from loved ones in Alabama, many of them hysterical, provided her with devastating updates. In Selma, family members’ homes were damaged but were structurally sound. But just one town over, other relatives lost everything. Her family has called the area home for generations and they have deep connections to Selma, a city etched in the history of the civil rights movement. Now, Selma is a majority-Black working class city recovering from a natural disaster, in a region that has suffered for decades from economic depression and lacking public resources.
<div class="at-above-post addthis tool" data-url="http://www.metro.us/in-alabama-tornadoes-rattle-historic-civil-rights-community/"></div>Zakiya Sankara-Jabar’s cellphone buzzed relentlessly as a deadly storm system that spawned tornadoes throughout the U.S. South laid waste to relatives’ homes and churches across a part of Alabama known as the Black Belt. Text messages and calls from loved ones, many of them hysterical, provided her with devastating updates of Thursday’s storms, which tore […]<! AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on get the excerpt ><! AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on get the excerpt ><! AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get the excerpt ><! AddThis Share Buttons above via filter on get the excerpt ><! AddThis Share Buttons below via filter on get the excerpt ><div class="at-below-post addthis tool" data-url="http://www.metro.us/