A Japanese American inspired to march in Selma in 1965 after seeing a minister and friend die protesting for civil rights plans to return for the 50th anniversary, reports the Washington Post.
“I went in as a Japanese American in support of African Americans on issues that they determined to be their civil rights, even though that wasn’t me, or my people, or my ethnic group,” Todd Endo said.
He hasn’t been back since, but has booked a flight to return to attend the commemoration. He told the Post he wants to “talk to people who have been there from ’65 and are willing to tell me and show me how things are different and the same, and what they’re working on.”
He says back in ’65 he saw connections between what Japanese Americans went through in the incarceration camps during World War II with the fight for racial equality.
Endo talks about what it was like to be one of the only Asian Americans marching in Selma in the Washington Post.
