European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 5, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine civil rights marchers hike up a Hill on Alabama a route 80 during the second March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. An army military policeman stands guard alongside his jeep in foreground. A amps map March to Montgomery 25 by Marvin Harris associated press Wenty five years after the March to Montgomery Selma s Blacks and Whites still separated socially Are nearing political Equality a and Are at the barricades of protest again. The goal of the Black demonstrators in Alabama a Quarter Century ago was Clear Cut and fundamental gaining the right to vote. The March 7,1965, assault on the protesters by Alabama state troopers and other lawmen a a clash known in civil rights annals As bloody sunday generated widespread support for the passage of the voting rights act which ensured Blacks no longer would be denied voting rights through chicanery or intimidation. Today a protesters use the same 1960s-style tactics of marches and sit ins but their targets Are narrower political control of Selma s school system and stopping the impending ouster of the City s first Black school superintendent. Organizers re enacted the 54-mile March to the Capitol in Montgomery sunday with participants including the Rev. Jesse Jackson the Rev. Joseph Lowery president of the Southern Christian leadership conference and rep. John Lewis d-ga., a former Leader of the student nonviolent coordinating committee. Lowery Heads the Atlanta based organization founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King jr., who led the second March guarded by Federal troops that reached Montgomery two weeks later. Lewis led the hundreds of demonstrators to Selma a Edmund Pettus Bridge on bloody sunday suffering a bloodied head. Lewis Isnit the Only familiar face returning from 1965. City Council president Carl Morgan and mayor Joe Smitherman held those same posts 25 years ago when Selma now about 53 percent Black had no Black Public officials. Blacks now hold four of the nine City Council seats and three of five Dallas county commission seats. Smitherman and Morgan Are Quick to list other milestones of racial Progress a District judge is Black As is an assistant police chief and the president of Wallace Community College a Black also has served As president of the embattled City school Board an 11-member appointive body with five Black members. A a lot of things have changed Quot Morgan said a a there a no question about that. You be got a Black state senator and two Black state representatives that represent the District Selma is  a new congressional District with a Black majority could be carved out of Central Alabama after the 1990 . Census is completed giving the state its first Black congressman in this Century but Selma a Black and White residents still live largely in separate neighbourhoods and tend not to socialize. A White former City councilman George a Cap Swift noted for example that the City has two elks clubs two american legion posts and two first Baptist churches a one for each race Morgan sees an ulterior motive in the current controversy engulfing Selma which involves the White majority school Board s refusal to renew the three year contract of superintendent Norward Roussell at the end of this school year. A if that situation had not come up something else probably would have to focus on the 25th anniversary of the 1965 voting rights act Quot said Morgan a colonel in the Alabama National guard when it was federalized to help protect the marchers. The View of a manufactured controversy to coincide with the anniversary is strongly disputed by Rose Sanders a Leader of the protests which have included sit ins at City Hall and at the Only Public High school. Sanders said today s protests Are designed to make sure Black children Arentt segregated through an unfair student placement system. Such a system had been used before Roussell began trying to dismantle it she said. A Blacks and Whites go in the same school door but once inside they go to separate and unequal classes Quot said Sanders like her husband state sen Hank Sanders a Harvard educated lawyer Smitherman contends Sanders and the protesters Are segregating the schools. The 5,800-student monday March 5, 1990 system was 70 percent Black before the protests began with More than 250 Whites withdrawing in recent weeks it now is 75 percent Black feelings against the protesters of 25 years ago remain Strong too at least in some quarters sol Tepper or a member of then Dallas county sheriff Jim Clark s posse which tangled with the demonstrators voiced a perspective on the bloody sunday clash that he says Isnit unique a the Media made criminals out of Law enforcement officials who were Only trying to enforce the Laws of the land Quot said Tepper 81, a wealthy landowner they a made heroes out of a Bunch of vermin lawbreakers who descended on us like plagues out of  feelings also run High about the failure of an All Black and a biracial committee to work together to prepare for the March re enactment and the commemoration of the voting rights act s passage a White banker Rex Morthland. Was co chairman of the committee commemorating the March his co chairman was Selma High school principal f d Reese the Black who invited King to Lead demonstrations in the City but the panel disbanded after Morthland said he could not get cooperation from the All Black committee which has celebrated the voting rights March in past years Sanders a Leader of the All Black group dismissed the biracial committee As a a tool of the mayor also the White majority City Council refused to repave Martin Luther King or. Street for the 25th anniversary of the March with the 5-4 vote falling along racial lines. Still Morthland said the years have brought improvement. A they were tense in 1965 and they re tense now too but in the intervening period i think a great Deal of Progress has been made in racial relations in the City Quot he said that might partly be due to a More assertive attitude on the part of Blacks some say a a we re a different Breed than we were in the 60s, or. Samuel Lett an obstetrician with a High profile in recent Selma protests told Blacks attending a mass meeting. Quot we took things then that we wont take now a a the stars and stripes a a a Page 13