Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers

I am writing you today to invite you to join in a special event in which the NALC is taking part, sponsored by our brothers and sisters with the AFL-CIO.

Every year, the Alabama AFL-CIO conducts a special march to retrace the 1965 civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery—marches that not only made history, they changed America.

This year’s commemoration will begin in Selma on Sunday, March 4, then proceed in stages toward Montgomery over the course of five days, culminating with a rally at the Alabama State Capitol at 11:30 on Friday morning, March 9.

This observance recalls the terrible events in Alabama on March 7, 1965, when state troopers and mounted deputies dressed in full riot gear beat and tear-gassed hundreds of people who were trying to march peacefully from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery to protest a brutal murder and the denial of African-Americans’ constitutional right to vote.

Two weeks later, more than 1,000 people from all over the U.S. marched again, this time protected by the Alabama National Guard under orders from President Lyndon Johnson. On March 25, at the successful end of the march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed thousands in front of the Alabama State Capitol; five months after that, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

Today, 47 years later, we face new challenges, with lawmakers in states across America launching an all-out coordinated assault on our democracy by attacking workers’ rights, voting rights, public education and comprehensive immigration reform.

If you can, please join our friends and allies as they retrace this historic path between Selma and Montgomery. Our participation in this march provides us with a way to support our brothers and sisters in their fight, to reach beyond our membership to tell the truth about the real reasons behind the Postal Service’s financial crisis, and to call them to action to join our campaign to save an American institution—their United States Postal Service.

We’re counting on you and your fellow NALC activists to be on hand each day to distribute special pre-paid postcards on which marchers can write messages asking friends and family members for support for their cause and to inspire others to take part in the nationwide movement to keep America strong.

NALC “workers’ rights” T-shirts will be given to volunteers who take part in this march.

Click here to download the march’s itinerary (PDF)

For more information and to confirm your participation, please call Region 8 Regional Administrative Assistant Monica Walker at 256-714-3740.

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Please join us March 4-9 as thoughtful and committed letter carriers once again will band together and work to make the world a better place.

In Solidarity,

Fredric V. Rolando, President
National Association of Letter Carriers