US Education Secretary Arne Duncan won’t cancel visit to Montgomery high school

Duncan won’t cancel Montgomery school visit

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — 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.