Jim Letherer

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Jim Letherer
Born
James M. Letherer

(1933-12-30)December 30, 1933
American
OccupationSettlement house worker
Known forActive work in civil rights

James M. Letherer (December 30, 1933 – December 18, 2001), born and died in

Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, and in 1966 walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in James Meredith's Mississippi March Against Fear.[3][5] Letherer lost his right leg to cancer when he was ten years old.[6][7]
Letherer has received honors by the Selma to Montgomery Interpretive Center Museum in Alabama, which hosts a life-size statue of him.

With a big heart and a tenacious spirit, he trooped with King and fellow marchers in many a Deep South protest despite not having his right leg from birth. During the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, Letherer – who used crutches – helped keep spirits high by unswervingly shouting out cadence for his remaining leg, by chanting, "Left, left, left!"[8]

He received mention and a verse in a book by Pete Seeger:

There was a guy named Jim Letherer who had one leg. He went all the way. There was a picture of us in the N. Y. Times and it said something about the last leg of the march. Jim said, "Hey Len, make me a verse."

— Len Chandler[9]

Jim Letherer's leg got left
But he's still in the fight.
Been walking day and night,
Jim's left leg is all right.

Letherer was involved with a march to aid cancer research in 1984,

Selma to Montgomery march participants in Selma, Alabama.[12]

References

  1. ^ "James M. Letherer". AncientFaces. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Social Security Death Index (SSDI) Death Record". Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  3. ^ a b "Letherer, Jim, 1933-2001". University System of Georgia Civil Rights Digital Library. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Letter From Jim Letherer Regarding Proposed March". The King Center. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  5. ^ Adler, Renata (10 April 1965). "Letter from Selma". The New Yorker. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  6. ^ Hirsley, Michael (4 March 1985). "20 Years Later, The Law Joins Marchers In Selma". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  7. ISBN 9781317863717
    . Jim Letherer, a one-legged, husky white laborer from Saginaw, Michigan, trudged the entire way on crutches.
  8. ^ Freeling, Isa (26 February 2015). "BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2015: Whites in the Civil Rights Movement who fought, and sometimes, died for the cause". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
  9. ISBN 978-0393306040
    .
  10. ^ Hembree, Linda (24 May 1984). "Miracle Marathon: Raleigh Man Tries to Walk Cross Country for Cancer". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
  11. ^ Weeks, Todd (25 May 1984). "Jim Letherer chasing dream". The Times-News. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  12. ^ Hirsley, Michael (4 March 1985). "20 Years Later, The Law Joins Marchers In Selma". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2015-03-23.

External links

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