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Original Selma Marcher To Return With State Senator Son

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Minnesota lawmaker will join thousands this weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Sen. John Marty, chair of the Environment and Energy Committee, will travel to Selma this weekend. He'll join his dad, who took part in one of the marches.

Marty has spent his career pushing for change.

In his Capitol office, an autographed picture of his dad and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., offers a glimpse of why this nine-term state senator wanted a life to politics.

"It's a reminder of where we come from," Marty said. "It means something."

Fifty years ago, King. asked Marty's dad, Martin, a fellow minister, to join him in a march on the Edmund Pettus bridge.

"It was a moral call for action," Sen. Marty said. "We need people to come to sustain the momentum."

Answering the request required courage: Two days earlier, marchers were met with brutal force.

King, who wasn't there for the first day of marching, had a different approach in mind when the group met a line of law enforcement officers, who moved to let them pass.

Martin Marty was captured joining in an impromptu prayer in a photo in Life Magazine.

"I'm proud of him, very proud of him," Sen. Marty said.

When Martin Marty returns to the historic bridge, his son will be by his side.

"I think it'll be very emotional," Sen. Marty said.

For Sen. Marty, this is more than a chance to experience history: It's a reminder that change sometimes come at a cost.

"As one who's been involved in politics, trying to work to change things I think are unjust, I think I expect it to be an inspirational time," he said. "I think folks involved then and now would say there's still a long way to go."

Marty's dad will be speaking at an event during the Selma commemoration.

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