NAACP’s “American Journey for Justice” comes to Columbia

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — The NAACP’s “American Journey for Justice” march stopped in Columbia Monday. NAACP president Cornell William Brooks was on hand to address the crowd. The activists are marching between Selma Alabama and Washington, D.C. It’s an 867 mile-long journey. They started August 1. When they’re finished, they will have completed one of the longest Civil Rights marches in history. Justice Summer is making its way through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Each participant walks whatever mileage they can manage. “I pray for the day when we don’t have to do this anymore,” Arizona resident Leslie Schenck says, “so that we can have a future for our children where everybody is treated equally, no matter what they look like.” They started in Selma, Alabama, because it’s the birthplace of the Voting Rights Act. Though, their trek is felt in places like Ferguson, Missouri, Charleston, South Carolina and Cleveland, Ohio. “I was not prepared for this series of criminal justice tragedies which have tested the bounds of our moral imagination,” NAACP President Cornell William Brooks says. The NAACP is calling for new legislation to address recent killings of African Americans by police officers. “Why are African-American lives said to matter, but seemingly meaningless?” Brooks asks. The question echos across the South Carolina State House grounds, filling the space once occupied with a Confederate Flag. “And for that we can be proud, “he says. “For that we can be grateful, and for that we commit ourselves to the future.” They say the key to the future, can be found in the not too-distant past. “If we are going to face down the enemy this time, we’ve got to be willing to do what we before, and that means put our feet out in the street,” says NAACP co-national chair director Kevin Myles. A 2015 march, with roots in the 1960s.