WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, John Batson - the Western New York Regional Director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), attended the commemoration events marking the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Alabama and marched over the famed Edmund Pettis Bridge that connects Montgomery to Selma, which is steeped in Civil Rights History. Batson spoke with WNYLaborToday.com prior to NYSNA participating in Buffalo’s annual Juneteenth Parade (on Saturday, June 14th) to talk about his “life-changing” trip and experience.   (Photos Courtesy of John Batson)

(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – This year’s Juneteenth celebration holds more meaning for John Batson, the Western New York Regional Director for the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), after his self-described “life-changing” trip to Alabama made earlier this year to take part in the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday - and a march over the famed Edmund Pettis Bridge that connects Montgomery to Selma, which is steeped in Civil Rights History.

As he and his NYSNA Members readied to take part in the celebration of culture and freedom during Saturday’s (June 14th) Juneteenth Parade in Buffalo, Batson took some time to talk with WNYLaborToday.com about his four-day trip down South, what he saw and experienced - and how it has changed his life, both personally and professionally.

“NYSNA ‘participates in the remembrance every year’ and NYSNA President Nancy Hagans invited me,” Batson said. “I was ‘happy and eager to go.’ ‘I knew it would be very special.’ ‘I knew its significance, but I didn’t consider the significance of being there and how connected the Civil Rights Movement was to the Labor Movement.’ ‘I did not know that the ‘first draft’ of Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech ‘was written in the Detroit Offices of the United Auto Workers’ - and ‘the role’ UAW President (and Civil Right Activist) Walter Reuther ‘played in it all, being the only White person who was allowed to speak at the Lincoln Memorial’ (when King delivered his now famous speech to hundreds of thousands in attendance). I found out Reuther ‘helped’ coordinate the busses traveling to Washington for Dr. King’s speech - and he ‘helped Black People get jobs, ‘particularly those represented by Unions.’ ‘You begin to realize Black and White People all contributed.’”

Batson (Pictured Below/WNYLaborToday.com File Photo), a Registered Nurse who is a 22-year Member of NYSNA (which is affiliated with National Nurses United) and who is in his mid-50s, took over responsibilities as NYSNA Western New York Regional Director in early 2024.

The Statewide Nurses Union represents 1,200 Member here in Western New York, most who are employed at the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) in Buffalo.

Batson visited several historic places while in Montgomery-Selma, as well as take in and ponder some very unpleasant history and tributes to the countless Black Men and Women who were lynched, tortured and murdered in the South by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and White Supremacists.

At one stop, he saw for himself hundreds of individual glass jars filled with dirt (pictured below) - symbolizing each of just some of those Black Americans whose lives were taken over the course of time in their fight for freedom.

“‘Profound sadness’” is what Batson described as he remained transfixed on the jars: “‘Just to look at them, the vast number.’ ‘They were essentially urns to those people who were sentenced to death.’ ‘They likely would have never been remembered if not for a project like this.’”

He also visited the Freedom Riders Museum at the old Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery where he - once again, stood in awe looking at hundreds of photos of people of all races who traveled from across the country to Alabama to take part in helping Blacks register to vote.

“‘Many were total strangers who came here not knowing where they would go, stay or sleep.’  ‘They were taken in by families who did their part to help,’” he said.

While we all know of Dr. King and John Lewis and the role they and so many others played in not only furthering the Civil Rights Movement some 60 years ago, Batson told WNYLaborToday.com his spirits were lifted by learning about a number of people who he described as “forgotten heroes who were instrumental and pivotal” - such as James Reeb (a White Pastor who came down from the North and was later beaten to death by White Supremacists), Civil Rights Activist Amelia Boynton (who was beaten unconscious by State Troopers crossing the bridge - a newspaper photo of Boynton lying bloody and beaten drew national attention to the cause), Arthur Shores (the first Black Attorney in Alabama - considered Alabama’s Drum Major For Justice, who moved his family near a White neighborhood and was subjected to having his home twice fire-bombed) and Viola Liuzzo (a White Michigan Woman who watched what was transpiring in Alabama on her family’s TV and made the decision to leave her husband and children, drive to Alabama and offer her help. She was later shot and killed by three White Supremacists while providing transportation and driving fellow Activists between the two Alabama Cities).

“‘There are so many others that you just didn’t know about’’ ‘You realize it was both Black and White People who contributed because it was needed and necessary,’” Batson said. “‘How can anyone be offended by DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)?’ ‘Everyone should be proud of the work done by their ancestors.’”

Batson’s trip to Alabama also brought into focus what his late Mother, a Community Revitalization Activist in the Banana Kelly Neighborhood during the 1970s while he and his Brothers and Sisters grew up in the South Bronx, told him about growing up in North Carolina. 

“‘She’d talked about the racial struggles (she had), so it was an epiphany (being in Montgomery and Selma) to be able to understand what she went through.’ While she grew up in the South, she later moved to New York and always said ‘you can accomplish anything you want to,’” he said.

Batson also participated in a commemorative march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge (named after the former Confederate Brigadier General, U.S. Senator and State-Level Leader - Grand Dragon - of the Alabama KKK).

It was the site of the infamous Bloody Sunday conflict that occurred on March 7th, 1965 when White Law Enforcement Officers attacked and violently dispersed Civil Rights Activists, many of whom were African-American, with horses, clubs and tear gas as they crossed during their first attempt to carry out the Selma March to the State Capital in Montgomery.

“The purpose of the march was because Black People ‘were being stopped from voting. ‘Some have to travel fifty miles to register (to vote).’  The ‘first attempt to cross the bridge was met with violence.’ ‘It was successful a second time,’” Batson said.

Asked what was going through his mind and how he felt as he walked across the bridge with so many others this past March, he answered: “‘I questioned myself of where I might have been that day - in 1965, walking over it.’ ‘When you begin the bridge crowns at its peak and you can’t see what’s on the other side’ (in Montgomery). ‘People who marched that day had no idea what was there to meet them on the other side.”

But the experience of participating in that march, as well as what history he was exposed to, caused Baton to reflect on the “parallels” to today’s Labor Movement.

“It’s ‘about standing up for everyone.’ ‘It’s telling that person in front of you to not to be afraid.’ ‘To have an inner strength,’” he said. “The Labor Movement ‘is about standing up for everyone.’ ‘It mirrors’ the Civil Rights Movement. ‘It was about the courage of Black and White People and the sacrifices they made.’ ‘It would have been easy just to stay home.’ ‘Blacks had no choice.’ ‘White People did.’ ‘I found inspiration from the people who did and jumped in.’ ‘It was life-changing for me.’”

Pausing for a moment, Batson added that under the current administration of President Donald Trump “‘hate has no limit and no one is safe.’”

“‘It will destroy everyone if we ignore what is going on.’” he said. “The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in (1865) ‘and the march took place (100) years later - and it’s still the same fight.’ Through ‘multiple’ generations, ‘you have to ask, how long with it take?’’ The work I’m doing is a continuance of the work they did and that’s why we must fight as long as we can.’ ‘We must resist them.’”

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More On NYSNA’s John Batson, Go To: Meet John Batson, NYSNA’s New Western New York Regional Director - A 21-Year RN Whose Life ‘Changed’ During The COVID-19 Pandemic & ‘Who Is Now Following In His Activist Mother’s Footsteps’ - WNY Labor Today: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York