Buried in the budget: $50M for civil rights sites, incl. the Selma to Montgomery trail

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Justin Sink ?@JTSTheHill
Buried in the budget: $50M for civil rights sites, incl. the Selma to Montgomery trail. Pres. Obama goes to Selma in March http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/231411-obama-gives-nod-to-civil-rights-movement-in-budget-proposal


____The president’s budget calls for new investments at a number of historic sites, including those along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. The president is likely to highlight the request when he visits Selma next month to mark the 50th anniversary of activist marches protesting efforts to prevent blacks from registering to vote.

The protests gave political momentum to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned state and local governments from implementing voting laws that discriminated against minorities, including literacy tests. The law also prohibited certain jurisdictions with a history of disenfranchisement from changing their voting laws without preapproval from the federal government.

In addition to the Selma site, Obama’s budget also calls for federal dollars to highlight and restore two historic sites related to the integration of public schools.

The president would give more federal dollars to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, which preserves one of the segregated Topeka elementary schools deemed unconstitutional in the famous court decision. He’d also designate money for Little Rock Central High School, where President Eisenhower deployed the National Guard to protect black students integrating the school.

State, local and tribal governments can also apply for historic preservation funds to help them document and preserve stories and sites associated with the civil rights movement.


read: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/231411-obama-gives-nod-to-civil-rights-movement-in-budget-proposal


National historic trail on U.S. Highway 80 marks the route of the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March of 1965

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2. sigh

Last edited Mon Feb 2, 2015, 06:41 PM - Edit history (1)

...hell, can't even find anyone to give a hoot or a mention on a Democratic board - crazy to expect a republican Congress care. The more we let our monuments to the past fade and crumble, the easier it is to let the ideals behind them fall down, as well. We've lost focus and will and it's not hard to imagine the reasons why.