By Bonnie Withers

After the first Selma march ended in bloodshed on the Edmund Pettis Bridge on
March 7, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King called for ministers to join him in Selma. 125
Unitarian-Universalist ministers responded to the call to join the second march for
voting rights for black Americans. One of them was 38 year-old James Reeb, who
was working in Boston for the American Friends Service Committee. He was
married and had four children.

On March 09, after dining with fellow UU ministers Orloff Miller and Clark Olson,
segregationists attacked the three and Reeb was clubbed on the head. Treatment
was delayed when the black hospital in Selma did not have facilities to treat him and
the white hospital refused. (Reeb was white.) He was finally taken to Birmingham
for brain surgery. He died two days later. Outrage over the brutality of his death was
widespread, and vigils of mourning were held throughout the country.

On the same day that the Voting Rights Act was signed, March 15, Dr. King spoke
these words at a ceremony eulogizing Reeb:

“James Reeb symbolizes the forces of good will in our nation. He demonstrated the
conscience of the nation. He was an attorney for the defense of the innocent in the
court of world opinion. He was a witness to the truth that men of different races and
classes might live, eat, and work together as brothers.”

Although three men were tried for the murder, they were acquitted. The case was
never solved.