Solidarity: Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel (second from right) and other white religious leaders were galvanized by events in Selma to join Martin Luther King Jr. (center) in the march for voting rights. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marching with prophets
Selma and the rise of an advocacy style
Fifty years ago, thousands marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. They were led by an eye-catching row of marchers, including a bearded rabbi, an unidentified nun in flowing habit, and Martin Luther King Jr. The third Selma-to-Montgomery march, which began on March 21, 1965, is rightly remembered as a watershed in the struggle for civil rights. Less known is how Selma refocused the lives of many, black and white, who gave the march its spiritual hue.
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