Siegelman Supporters Clint Brown, Mike Smith with his Son Joseph and daughter Dana
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…”- Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
It’s been nearly 52 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—in a frenzy of eloquence fueled by outrage at seeing in print the audacious lies of civil rights opponents—penned his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
He began writing first in the margins of the offending newspaper and continued his screed on scraps of paper and, then, finally, in a notebook his lawyers were allowed to bring to him.
Two years later he’d be leading hundreds in a march from Selma—the epicenter of a movement that began with suffering and death and ended in victory that day.
Fast forward half a century. The names of the players have changed, but the script reads like a bad re-run. A handful in power want to roll back hard-won legal protections for all of us. Their mandate: win at any cost.
And new targets have emerged: brave men and women—public figures, some in elected office— who’ve devoted their lives to making life just a little bit better for regular folks. Standing out among them: Reverend Edward Pinkney and former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who remains locked up in a federal prison in Oakdale, LA, four years into a 6.5 year sentence imposed for a host of unsavory crimes including bribery.
The fact that he did not commit the crimes in question carried no weight with the court, or it seems, the jury or any appellate judges because the zeal with which he was prosecuted had nothing to do with upholding the rule of law: it was, in the words of Karl Rove, a way to “neutralize” a charismatic leader who posed a significant threat to the status quo.
This was a common occurrence in Stalinist Russia, in East Germany before the wall came down, and in many military dictatorships around the world. Where we don’t expect to see it—at least not in 2015—is in the United States.
But power—or at least the illusion of it or lust for it—can do funny things to people. It can convince them they’re invincible, for example. It can drive them to lock up inconvenient rivals, thinking that after a news cycle or two the public will forget all about them. In short, it can make them underestimate the will of the people.
What Alabama’s power elite and their corporate-funded political supporters around the country failed to consider, was that an army of supporters would turn out to lobby for Don Siegelman’s unconditional release—and that they’d do so loudly and unrelentingly.
Like Dr. King before him, Governor Siegelman penned his own letter from jail. His powerful words, inspired by the historic marches in 1965, urged today’s freedom fighters to keep the faith:
“Today... we must resolve to recall the Spirit of those who sacrificed for freedom....
For the Spirit that moved the Marchers over a half century ago
will give us courage today to fight for freedom for all mankind.
That Spirit will embolden each of us to stand for peace, work for justice,
combat poverty, feed the hungry, invest in our children, end racial and ethnic divides...
protect our planet and ensure a place for all God's creations…”
~ Excerpt from an open letter by Governor Don Siegelman, March, 2015
Alabama judges have been loath to overturn the initial ruling in Siegelman’s case. So now his fate rests in the hands of President Obama, whose presence in Selma this weekend has given Siegelman supporters new hope. Siegelman’s daughter Dana has argued passionately for his release, as have his family friends and longtime civil rights allies.
Siegelman family friend Pam Miles recalls of the trial:
The Kangaroo Court was a horror from the first words “United States vs Don Eugene Siegelman” until the end, when he was stripped of everything but his wedding band and hauled from the courtroom in chains and shackles. The day after his sentencing many people from across the nation… began to call Congress… (asking) for justice for our Governor. That afternoon at around 3:00 PM, Congressman Artur Davis gave me a personal phone call, asking me to please have people stop calling. We had shut down the Congressional phone lines with our cries for justice!
Today a group of “FREE DON” supporters from across the nation are here in Selma, petitioning President Obama for Justice for our great governor.”
She then shares a reason for hope:
This Wednesday (March 4. 2015) I was at a dinner hosted by Alabama Power. Knowing my history with Don, one of those in attendance who is working on the anniversary celebration for the power company told me…“there was Siegelman stuff everywhere” in Selma.”
It’s been said that those ignoring history’s lessons are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Siegelman’s foes must have missed that day in class; they never learned that you can jail a man, but you can’t break his spirit, and you surely can’t silence a public outcry—especially when the injustice is this obvious.