CIVIL RIGHTS

Della Simpson Maynor was just 14 when she marched for voting rights in her hometown of Marion, Alabama, but she says she clearly remembers the police attacking the demonstrators.

The GWFC Star Women’s Club is teaming up with the Melrose Library and the NAACP Roanoke Branch to host a free movie and discussion on Tuesday night.

State officials along with Lee's family were in attendance for the momentous occasion.

Part of Southside Virginia is being recognized for its place in Civil Rights history.

ROANOKE, Va. – Sunday marked the 56th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Bloody Sunday” march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Selma for voting rights. About a hundred people honored his actions by marching over the Roanoke bridge that bears his name. The march over the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge was led by Dr. King’s old organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Roanoke chapter president Dr. Perneller Chubb-Wilson recounted her experiences fighting with Dr. King for civil rights during Sunday’s event. “I’ve been fighting ever since 1963, when Martin Luther King was in Danville, Virginia,” Chubb-Wilson told a crowd at the base of Dr. King’s statue.

RICHMOND, Va – Attorney General Mark Herring’s efforts to establish a Civil Rights office moved forward Wednesday. The office would be staffed and operated under the attorney general’s office. The Office of Civil Rights would handle race, gender and age discrimination on all levels in the Commonwealth. Virginia is a place that is open and welcoming to everyone we need to make sure that there is discrimination happening, and we put a stop to it,” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said. The bill did pass in a subcommittee Wednesday and will now move on to be considered by the House of Delegates

We celebrate Martin Luther King Day around the activist’s January birthday, which is Jan. 15.