Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders wore white carnation lei, a symbol of aloha, as they crossed a bridge named after a Confederate general in Selma, Ala.
It was the third march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The first, 50 years ago Saturday, ended in violence when Alabama state troopers used billy clubs to beat the unarmed protesters in a day now known as "Bloody Sunday."
Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, participating in the 50th-anniversary commemoration along with Hawaii-born President Barack Obama, brought six carnation lei and about 100 orchid lei to Selma to mark Hawaii’s role in the marches.
The violence of the first march, captured by television news cameras and newspaper photos, and the killings of civil rights activists connected with the voting rights protests, prompted President Lyndon Johnson to send federal troops to protect the marchers and led to the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
"I think it is important for Hawaii to have a presence here today," Takai said in a phone interview from Selma. "It is important to make sure we honor the sacrifices of those who marched 50 years ago … It is an important lesson for young people and for all of us."
For Takai, Hawaii’s role in the civil rights movement is represented by a photo on display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. It shows the Selma marchers holding a banner that says, "Hawaii knows integration works."
Some of the marchers in the photo are wearing carnation lei sent to King by the Rev. Abraham Akaka, who met and befriended King when the civil rights leader visited Hawaii in 1964 for a symposium at the University of Hawaii.
"The Hawaii spirit and the aloha spirit were here," Takai said. "One of the beauties of Hawaii is that we are all a minority. There’s so much to learn from the experiences of people from Hawaii."
The lei almost didn’t make it to Saturday’s ceremonies. Bad weather delayed the shipment, which arrived just an hour before Takai and Hirono left for the march, Takai said.
Hirono and Takai presented one of the carnation lei to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who is one of the surviving organizers of the Selma march. Takai said Lewis has a picture in his office of himself, King and other marchers wearing the original lei.
Lewis still has scars from a fractured skull suffered during the first march.
"I do believe that without the efforts of (U.S. Rep.) John Lewis and others, we would not be, today in 2015, listening to the president of the United States, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, who was an African-American kid from Hawaii," Takai said.
