Mourners march in honor of former state Rep. Alvin Holmes

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Monday, people across Montgomery honored a man who represented them for decades in the Alabama Legislature.

Organizers held a march in memory of former state Rep. Alvin Holmes. He passed away over the weekend at the age of 81.

The group marched about a mile to the Capitol steps where they spoke fondly of Holmes in memory of his legacy.

“Alvin fought for Black people and poor people and old people who didn’t have a voice.” said community activist William Boyd.

“Father God, sometime it’s not how long but how well. And when the rolls are call through the annals of time, Representative Alvin Holmes will have found to have been faithful over his journey,” said Montgomery businessman Willie Durham.

“Sometimes when people are standing up for ‘justiceville,’ they may not look like what people are comfortable with, but the cause is right, and the cause is just, and he stood for people at a time that it wasn’t popular,” Durham said.

Holmes started in the state House in 1974 and served for 44 years, making him the longest-serving member of the Alabama House of Representatives. He lost his last run for the House in 2018.

According to The Associated Press, he was one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature after the civil rights era. His political career included fights to remove Jim Crow language from the state’s constitution and helping remove the Confederate flag from the Alabama Capitol.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

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