SELMA, Ala. (AP) - Outside the Old Depot Museum, a red brick building showcasing historical artifacts from the town, there’s an 8-foot thick granite monument with a black and gold plaque.
The plaque features a gold picture of a man wearing a bow tie and glasses, with a long description below.
“Rev. James J. Reeb, an army veteran and Unitarian minister from Casper, Wyoming …” the passage begins.
This is one of a few monuments in town dedicated to Reeb, who was beaten here by white supremacists 50 years ago after traveling to Selma for the famous march to Montgomery. Reeb died two days later.
But this monument is different from the others. It was donated anonymously.
“The person who gave it did not want to be the object of controversy,” said Alston Fitts, 75, Selma’s unofficial historian, who wrote the inscription. “Whether that be praised for it or attacked for it.”
Fitts remembers unveiling the monument about 1997 or 1998. The anonymous donor funded the memorial because at the time, there wasn’t much in Selma commemorating Reeb.
That is one reason why relatively few locals know his name.
“Nobody does,” said Frances Bowden, a 76-year-old white woman with white hair and hot pink pants who works at Selma Bail Bonds, right next to the street where Reeb was beaten. “That’s been 50 years ago. Most of the people that are here now weren’t even born then.”
Bowden wasn’t wrong. When asked if she’d heard of Reeb, a woman behind a downtown checkout counter scrunched her nose and shook her head, as did a few others on the street.
Bowden suspected the only leader people remember from the civil rights movement is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But there are people who remember Reeb and others.
“You talking about James Reeb? Rev. James Reeb?” said Johnny Manuel, a 66-year-old black man with a black and gray goatee who was 16 when Reeb was murdered. “He was one of the ones who came down to answer the call when Dr. King called.”
Manuel continued.
“The white people who came (to Selma), they were dedicated, and some of them probably had a sense of knowing what could happen, knowing they could get spit on, hell beat out of you or killed.”
Manuel agreed few people in town know who the martyrs of the civil rights movement are. He and Bowden think they should.
“I think they need to know more about (Reeb) and all the other people who lost their lives. I sure do. It’s part of their history,” Bowden said. “They should know what happened. They should know who done it.”
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
Star-tribune Selma page: https://bit.ly/1wLZY2x
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