02/18/2026
Please take some time to read this very important story
We are sharing this story today to highlight the power of its effect on systemic racism that still exists in our world and here at home. Tomorrow, we will become part of a bigger fight with a bigger mission, focused on a better more unified and inclusive community.
Stay Tuned for our news tomorrow.
We remember and honor the life of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young black man whose life was taken in 1965 while he was peacefully protesting in the struggle for civil rights in Alabama. On the night he was killed, February 18, 1965, he was participating in a peaceful voting-rights protest that left Zion United Methodist Church in Marion and attempted a peaceful walk to the Perry County jail, about a half a block away, where young civil-rights worker James Orange was being held. The marchers planned to sing hymns and return to the church. Police later said that they believed the crowd was planning a jailbreak.
When state troopers and police violently attacked the demonstrators, Jimmie ran into a nearby café with his mother, sister, and grandfather to escape the assault. Inside the café, he was beaten and then shot while trying to shield his mother, Viola Jackson and grandfather, 82-year-old Cager Lee, from harm.
Police clubbed Lee to the floor in the kitchen; when Viola attempted to pull the police off, she was also beaten. When Jackson tried to protect his mother, one trooper threw him against a cigarette machine. A second trooper shot Jackson twice in the abdomen.
The wounded Jackson left the café, suffering additional blows by the police, and collapsed in front of the bus station. He was taken to the hospital.
In the presence of FBI officials at the hospital, Jackson told lawyer Oscar Adams, of Birmingham, that he was "clubbed down" by state troopers after he was shot and had escaped from the café. Before his death, Jackson was served with an arrest warrant by Col. Al Lingo, head of the Alabama State Police. The Alabama State Senate responded to national criticism and "formally denounced charges of dereliction by Lingo's Troopers in Marion."
Jimmie Lee Jackson’s murder was not an isolated incident – it was a reflection of a system that used violence to silence Black voices demanding dignity, safety, and equal treatment under the law. His death became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and helped to spark the Selma to Montgomery marches, which pushed the nation to confront its deep and embedded injustices.
The March 7th march is now known as "Bloody Sunday" because of the violent response of state troopers and the county sheriff's posse who attacked and beat the protesters after they walked over the Edmund Pettus Bridge while leaving the city of Selma and entering the county. The events were widely covered and attracted international attention, raising widespread support for the voting rights campaign.
In the third march to Montgomery, which began on March 21, protesters were protected by federal troops and Alabama National Guard forces under federal command. They traveled the entire way, gathering more marchers along the route. A total of 25,000 people peacefully entered the city, the largest civil rights event in the city.
Jimmie Lee Jacksons death was also the catalyst for a major event in the civil rights movement that helped gain congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In March 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his federal bill to support voting rights by authorizing federal oversight of local practices and enforcement by the federal government; it was passed by Congress as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After the act was passed, Jimmie Lee Jackson's grandfather Cager Lee, who had marched with him in February 1965 in Marion, registered and voted for the first time at the age of 84.
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Mr. Jacksons memorial service saying,
“Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly to make the American dream a reality. His death must prove that unmerited suffering does not go unredeemed. We must not be bitter and we must not harbor ideas of retaliating with violence. We must not lose faith in our white brothers.”
In 2005, former Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler admitted to having shot Jackson, in what he said was self-defense soon after street lights had gone out and a melee had broken out. He was indicted in 2007 and in 2010, he plead guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to six months in prison.
In 2015 the Marion to Selma Connecting Trail was designated to connect the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail with the site of Jackson's death.
Nearly sixty years later, the pain and pattern feel heartbreakingly familiar. Black lives are still too often lost to violence and families are still left without answers, accountability, or justice.
Remembering Jimmie Lee Jackson is not just about honoring history, it is about recognizing how unfinished this work still is.
We say his name today because his life mattered.
We say his name because silence allows injustice to continue.
We say his name because justice delayed is justice denied.
May his memory strengthen our commitment to fight for truth, accountability, and a world where no one is killed for demanding basic human rights.
