Selma Voters Registration March

Oral History Collection

October 1, 2010
Katheryn Dutenhaver (KD) interviewed by Kimberly Butler (KB)

TRACK 1
44:05
KB: What was it like to go on those buses down there?
KD: It was a long, long, ride down.  It wasn’t as long a ride back. Going there, there was no certainty of what we would find when we got there.  ... As I recall, they had to limit the numbers in order to have good security. I think I was about 3000 people were allowed to march.  And then once crossing the Pettus bridge, 300 were allowed to continue the whole march to Montgomery. That was far more dangerous ... Dr. Martin Luther King spoke that morning on the steps of the church. That was the sermon. We had arrived early that morning; I think about 5 or 5:30am. This was an all night trip. He was such a marvelous speaker. As I recall, he really pitched the moment of when we would cross the bridge and then step off the Pettus bridge as marking a significant answer to what had happened on the Pettus bridge. Nobody got to step off on the other side. We were in rows and Jerry Goethe was in a row a couple ahead of me and then I saw him step off the bridge and then moments later I did. That really stays in my mind as something that was so moving.