She told us she watched as the sheriff hit her from behind, knocking her on the ground, and then kicked her so hard she came off the ground. She was then chosen as one of the 300 people who could cross the bridge at the next march, and she was the youngest at 15.Īfter that Lowry told us in November 2020, she was doing an interview for Black Lives Matter, and they asked her if she would like to see archived videos of the Bloody March. She then said that she started running into a cloud of smoke, and the next thing she knew she woke up being wheeled into a hearse. Their hands ended up on her face, and she bit the person's finger. Lowry detailed the story, when she was on her knees on the bridge, but was being grabbed from behind and pulled. All she did was fight for what she believed in. But she was not ashamed because she didn't hurt anyone, nor take anything from anyone. Lydia opened by telling us she had been jailed nine times by the age of 15. It is easy to see why inequality is still present in our society because it takes time to heal and change, and it simply hasn't been that long. He said it takes at least 100 years to fully heal from events like that. The last battle of the civil war was fought there 100 years before the Bloody March of Selma. Arizona Track & Field/Cross Country July 16, 2022 Morgan Rhett and Diego Marquez at the First Baptist Church and Edmund Pettus Bridge during the Pac-12 Social Justice Experience #BearDown | #BeLezoLike /665GrjSSDJ Selma is ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement. He helped me realize how recent these events were. He lived through the events in Selma and was the city's first black mayor.

The mayor of Selma told us his story and thanked us profusely for visiting. It was surreal because MLK gave many speeches there. We were really spoiled! We had an hour and a half car ride to the First Baptist Church in Selma. We then started heading to the bus at 8 am, and in the area leading to the bus, there were bins and bins of snacks, and coolers filled with delicious drinks. We sat with one of Morgan's childhood friends from Pitt, and some women's basketball players from Wisconsin. For breakfast, we had fruit, and egg quiche, and I put some Louisiana hot sauce on my eggs. We were surrounded by Big 10, ACC, and Pac-12 athletes. We got to breakfast downstairs at 7 am, and it was super cool because everyone was wearing shirts for their conference. We all ended up with about 4 hours of sleep, and the 6 am alarm hurt the next morning. We eventually arrived at our hotel at about 1 am, and when we walked in the door, the advisor from Michigan said, 'Y'all missed all the festivities!' Thomas and I laughed about that because we joked it made us feel so good about being late. But it would have been a mistake to miss out on what was left of this opportunity. After the trouble getting on our way, we were debating if we should even go because we didn't want to drive to the airport for the 3rd time. Arizona Track & Field/Cross Country JPAC-12 Social Justice Experience - My JournalĪfter the trip got off to a very rough start with multiple flights being delayed and canceled, we finally got a flight out at 1:20 p.m., which made us miss the whole first day. Morgan Rhett, Diego Marquez to represent University of Arizona in Alabama for Pac-12 Social Justice Experience July 15-17 I wrote about this experience to allow others to be able to understand all we were able to experience on this trip, and maybe by the end, you will be able to see why I left Alabama a different person than I had been when I arrived. I attended this event with Thomas Harris, the Associate Athletic Director for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Arizona, and Morgan Rhett, my teammate on the Arizona track and field team. I knew the general idea of what the trip would entail, but because I was thrown in with such short notice, I had no idea just how important this trip would be to me. I was thrilled to be able to attend a Pac-12 event. My teammate who was selected for the trip was suddenly unable to go 2 days before the trip, and my other teammate who was attending, Morgan, called me and asked if I would like to take his place. There were two athletes chosen from each Pac-12 school. Marquez: 'I was provided with a raw, unfiltered perspective of racism and inequality toward African Americans. Both Marquez and teammate Morgan Rhett represented Arizona and the Pac-12 with members of the Big 10, and ACC coming together to create an experience that would take student-athletes through an important part of black history. Arizona Track and Field Sophomore Diego Marquez wrote a journal entry about the experience of a lifetime.

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