By Faith Callens, BFF Writer

The Safe Haven Center is preparing for its 26^th anniversary of the Stop The Violence Rally that commemorates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts to bring forth impactful change. 

The STV rally will kick off Monday, January 19 on the official observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day starting from 12 to 2 p.m.

Safe Haven Center President Michael Bowen said that the event will begin at Brown Chapel A.M.E Church and conclude at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There will also be an array of speakers for the event that will travel from Minnesota and Atlanta, Georgia. Also, the next year’s guest speaker will be Rev. Nathan Knight.

“We all know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968,in Memphis, Tennessee and since that day, we have honored his legacy through a non-violence rally,” Bowen said. “Also, because of the situation in Selma with the loss of lives and gun violence, we started celebrating this 25 years ago and next year makes 26 years and since that time, we have lost hundreds of lives to gun violence and we try to put a detour in gun violence every opportunity we get and in violence, period.”

Bowen said the event is also held to continue to bring awareness to the severity of the loss behind gun violence because he feels a percentage of the Selma community is still asleep. 

“We just came out of a meeting Monday night with the District Attorney  Robert Turner Jr. because in the last sixty days we have lost five people to gun violence and we are aware that this issue is still prominent in our community today,” Bowen said. “We are trying our best to stamp it out by bringing it to the fore front and doing what we do. We feel that people will be more aware of what’s happening in the community because there’s still a percentage of people that’s asleep and that don’t really pay attention, don’t read the paper, that doesn’t listen to the news when all this is going on. You ask the average person in Selma about that situation in the last 60 days; they can’t tell you five people lost their lives to gun violence.”

Bowen said that’s why on Friday, Dec. 5, the organization plans to appear at the local radio station in Selma called WHBB and will announce on The Randy Show at 9 a.m. about their efforts to bring upon change locally. 

Bowen said all residents who are interested in attending the Stop the Violence Rally can listen in at 9 a.m. on 1490 FM. 

For more information about the upcoming rally, contact Michael Bowen at 334-505-1723.