Former Fayetteville activist back in Selma on 50th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'
SELMA, Ala. (WTVD) -- Fayetteville author Chuck Fager has returned to Selma to mark the 50th anniversary of a march that changed the face of the civil rights movement.
Fager is one of the people who walked with Dr. Martin Luther King on the original march back in 1965.
"We helped bring a reign of terror to an end," said Chuck Fager.
The 72 year old can still hear the screams of "Bloody Sunday." He remembers the violence and the will of a determined people.
"Three Presidents -- Carter, Clinton and Obama -- were, in my judgment, made possible by the voting rights act passed as a result of the movement here," said Fager.
Fager has been in Selma for several days now. He was just 22 years old when he worked for and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"On several occasions, they asked me to walk around him along with three others to block the aim of potential snipers on rooftops nearby," said Fager.
On this trip, Fager revisited the Selma Police Department's jail where he spent the night in a cell with Dr. King after they were arrested.
Fager was one of a handful of young white sympathizers who joined hands with blacks for that fateful march.
Fager said they were "foot soldiers" who endured, not inflicted violence.
"Selma was a landmark not a blueprint," he said. "We can't duplicate it today, and more than anything we can't duplicate Dr. King."
Fager says he joined the civil rights movement out of a sense of duty for his country. Selma, he says, was a defining moment for the nation and his life. What he learned helped shape Faber's social views that led to his anti-war efforts with Quaker House in Fayetteville.
"I just wanted to do something that seemed to me to be making a positive difference for the country," said Fager. "And racism is segregation, and by God that seemed like a domestic enemy to me."
Now, 50 years later, Fager is back in Selma for an historic moment. He's satisfied that what he took part in, while not perfect, was still right and good.
"I can see now how the civil rights movement was not perfect and wonderful as I thought it was back then, but it's still something we can be proud of and take pride in as Americans," said Fager.
North Carolina NAACP President William Barber is also in Selma this weekend to mark the anniversary.
