By Carol P. Bartold

Apr. 1, 2015: History came alive on the campus of Concordia College in Bronxville on March 25, the fiftieth anniversary of the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

When Dr. Jason Thoms, associate professor of music and director of choral activities at the college, planned the commemoration of the 54-mile march, he set out to design a campus and community event to embrace culture as well as history.

Approximately 300 people, including Concordia College students, administrators, faculty, and staff, students from The Chapel School, clergy from local churches, and local civic leaders, including Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin and Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis, gathered on the Concordia campus to recreate the historic event.

The actual 1965 march, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., took five days and ended at the steps of the Alabama state capitol on March 25. Civil rights leaders and supporters organized and staged the march to persuade Governor George Wallace that voting is a right that all citizens of the United States should have.

Thoms stated that, when he first approached Concordia College students about recreating the 1965 march, he didn't get an enthusiastic response. Undeterred, he made lunchtime visits to the campus dining hall to talk with students and engage them in conversation about the circumstances and history surrounding the march and about the civil rights movement.

"I visited classes to teach them some of the protest songs from the march," Thoms said, "and to help them realize that, while it pertained to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the same concerns are still around. When they realized it wasn't something that just happened 50 years ago, they were on board."

Under Thoms's leadership, Concordia College students, as well as students from grades 6, 7, and 8 at The Chapel School, learned the songs "Oh, Freedom!" believed to be a song from the Civil War and Reconstruction era that was sung during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, "This Little Light of Mine," and "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round," a 1960s song from the civil rights movement.

A banner, recreated from historic photographs of a 1965 march in Harlem, was carried at the commemoration.

"The Concordia College event was one of the most inspiring, uplifting events I have attended," said Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin. "It gave me confidence that the next generation can accomplish so many positive things for the benefit of all of us."

The Concordia College Liberal Studies Program and student life office sponsored the commemoration.

Pictured here: Students and community leaders marching in the reenactment of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march in 1965.

Photo courtesy North Callahan