Civil-rights marchers: US still needs to address inequality

(AP) — A half-century ago, thousands joined a march across Mississippi to challenge a system that condoned violence against black people and suppressed their rights — issues still reverberating in today's national debates about police violence.

The March Against Fear in the summer of 1966 helped many find a voice to protest the injustices of the day, setting an example for contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter.

While Meredith declined to discuss specifics of the recent violence — which has included fatal shootings of black men by police and deadly attacks on officers — he and his contemporaries say much work still needs to be done.

The march started as a one-man journey by Meredith, four years after he integrated the University of Mississippi amid violent backlash.

[...] 83, Meredith wants the black community to embrace education and mentorship as ways to "pay God back."

Duty and responsibility are an equal part, and that's the part the black race has failed to pay any attention to.

Dion Goodloe, 19, was home in a wheelchair with a broken leg when officers came to investigate a report of trouble at a nearby store, says BrownWright.

"Whatever the reason was, it did not justify them shooting a kid sitting in a wheelchair who could not walk," she says.

Back in 1966, she was an NAACP volunteer in Canton who received a phone call from King asking if she could provide food and housing for 3,000 marchers.

The Rev. Ed King was an anomaly — a white chaplain at a historically black private college that was a safe haven for civil rights activists.

Wendell Paris, a Baptist minister in Jackson, still sees inequality, with black people more likely to attend poorly funded schools or be vulnerable to predatory lending.