By Education secretary ignores lawmaker's request to stay away from Ala. high school
Montgomery, AL – - U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan
will meet with students as planned at Montgomery's Robert E. Lee
High School, despite a state legislator's call to cancel the
appearance.
Democratic Rep. Alvin Holmes of Montgomery, had asked Duncan to
cancel the visit because in 1965 the school and its then-principal
publicly opposed the Rev. Martin Luther King and the
Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
Officials in Duncan's office said the school is now majority
black and the current principal was 2 years old at the time of the
march.
Duncan will appear at the school at 12:05 p.m. Monday. Later
Monday, he plans to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
and announce efforts to ensure equal opportunities for all school
children.