Tim Walz has been in Alabama this weekend, taking part in the Eighth Congressional Civil Right Pilgrimage, sponsored by the Faith and Politics Institute. The photo at left is from a Montgomery Advertiser photo gallery about the pilgrimage.
On the right side of the photo, Minnesota representatives Betty McCollum, Tim Walz, and Keith Ellison join hands with other pilgrimage members to sing "We Shall Overcome" at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery.
There's another Minnesota connection to the event: Senator Norm Coleman is on the Faith and Politics Institute's Congressional Advisory Council and took part in a similar ceremony at the Civil Rights Memorial during the Institute's pilgrimage for Senators in 2004.
This year's pilgrimage is getting more attention from the press because both Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton will be in Selma for the commemoration of the march from Selma to Montgomery. Senator Obama was invited first, to speak at the historic Brown Chapel, then Senator Clinton received an invitation to speak at another church just down the street.
In a preface to an interview with Rep. Lewis, the Washington Post notes:
Forty-two years after a 25-year-old activist named John Lewis led voting-rights marchers onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, Ala., only to be beaten and tear-gassed by state troopers on what became known as Bloody Sunday, the bridge is the scene of another kind of showdown. Today, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are joining Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia, and thousands of participants in the annual commemoration of the march from Selma to Montgomery, which was finally completed two weeks after Bloody Sunday with the Rev. Martin Luther King.
Today's Advertiser covered the pilgrimage, framing today's event in terms of national politics:
A hero of America's civil rights movement returned to Alabama on Saturday with congressional colleagues who got a first-hand look at one of the country's most historic events.
As he has done numerous times since his election to Congress, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., served as a tour guide and a history teacher in Birmingham and Montgomery. Today he will be doing the same thing in Selma.
"We vowed to redeem the soul of this country," Lewis, who grew up in Pike County, said at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. "Our country is a better place because Martin Luther King gave those unbelievable messages from this pulpit."
The church was filled with members of the congressional delegation as well as other supporters of the Faith and Politics Institute, which has sponsored trips to Alabama for nearly a decade.
Those who spent Saturday in Montgomery will take part in a historic event in Selma today when former President Bill Clinton, his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will appear before the traditional walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
More about the Obama-Clinton appearances in the Advertiser here. Selma's African-American paper, The Selma Times-Journal, looks at Obama's trip and the Clintons' participation. The Birmingham News' coverage focused more on the pilgrimage than the contest. Update: Plenty of updates at the Montgomery Advertiser. NPR's take. The New York Times. [/update].
Walz and McCollum are in a photo in a post about the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center's website.
OLLIE OX UPDATE:
These next two items from Southern Minnesota newspapers aren't directly related to the post above, but do speak to values.
The New Ulm Journal reports on local efforts to make quilts for injured soldiers in NU women make quilts for wounded troops. Kudos to the 19 women and their sponsors for helping out with Quilts Of Valor (QOV). The Washington post reported about the project on February in With Gratitude In Every Stitch:
Today, comfort quilts are part of the fabric of life at Walter Reed, helping to humanize the 308 government-issue beds, overlit hallways and hushed visitors lounges. As soldiers are wheeled to physical therapy or the endless tests, there is a rush of color from hand-stitched covers as they roll by. Many of the 600 wounded who come in daily for outpatient treatment have quilts folded under their legs or tucked around their bodies. Soldiers clutching the quilts have turned up at inaugural balls and Army-Navy football games.
Let's hope that outpatient comfort at Walter Reed will live up to the standards set by America's generous quilters.
Winona Daily News tells of Home-grown economics: Farmers and chefs looking at ways to and keep food and profits in area, an article about a conference on Friday oganized by the Land Stewardship Project and Winona County's Economic Development Authority (see item #19 here).
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