As this weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the Selma March, which culminated in the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the focus was on the past in contrast with the present and future. Congressman John Lewis, who was once beaten and jailed 50 years ago while marching and fighting for civil rights and voting rights for African Americans on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, returned walking alongside of President Obama on Saturday. While some African Americans and others complain that race relations have deteriorated and not changed, they only need look to or speak with John Lewis and those individuals who 50 years ago risked their lives, endured indignities, beatings, even death, tear gas, and multiple times in jail to know that things have changed in America. We are far from a perfect union. The gap is not as wide as it was 50 years ago when it was unimaginable that a black man could become President or Attorney General. But the gap still persists. As history … [Read more...] about Selma 50 Years: Then and Now