Jim Letherer

{{Short description|US civil rights activist}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jim Letherer

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = James M. Letherer

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1933|12|30}}

| birth_place = Saginaw, Michigan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|12|18|1933|12|30}}

| death_place = Saginaw, Michigan

| nationality = American

| other_names =

| occupation = Settlement house worker

| years_active =

| known_for = Active work in civil rights

| notable_works =

}}

James M. Letherer (December 30, 1933 – December 18, 2001) was an American civil rights activist.{{cite web|url=http://crdl.usg.edu/people/l/letherer_jim_1933_2001/?Welcome|title=Letherer, Jim, 1933-2001|website=University System of Georgia Civil Rights Digital Library|access-date=21 March 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/letter-jim-letherer-regarding-proposed-march|title=Letter From Jim Letherer Regarding Proposed March|website=The King Center|access-date=21 March 2015}} He walked on crutches the entire 54 miles of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, and in 1966 walked with Martin Luther King Jr. in James Meredith's Mississippi March Against Fear.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/04/10/letter-from-selma|title=Letter from Selma|author=Adler, Renata |date=10 April 1965|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=21 March 2015}} Letherer lost his right leg to cancer when he was ten years old.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/03/04/20-years-later-the-law-joins-marchers-in-selma/|title=20 Years Later, The Law Joins Marchers In Selma|website=Chicago Tribune|last1=Hirsley|first1=Michael|date=4 March 1985|access-date=21 March 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Dierenfield|first1=Bruce J.|title=The Civil Rights Movement|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317863717|pages=194–195|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQ7cAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT194|quote=Jim Letherer, a one-legged, husky white laborer from Saginaw, Michigan, trudged the entire way on crutches.}} Letherer has received honors by the Selma to Montgomery Interpretive Center Museum in Alabama, which hosts a life-size statue of him.

{{blockquote|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!"{{Cite news |title=BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2015: Whites in the Civil Rights Movement who fought, and sometimes, died for the cause |author=Freeling, Isa |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/black-history-month-2015-civil-rights-allies-article-1.2129213 |work=New York Daily News |date=26 February 2015 |access-date=2015-03-23}}}} He received mention and a verse in a book by Pete Seeger:

{{blockquote|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{{Cite book |title=Everybody Says Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement in Songs and Pictures |last1=Seeger |first1=Pete |last2=Reiser |first2=Bob |author-link1=Pete Seeger |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |date=15 June 2009 |isbn=978-0393306040 }}}}

{{poemquote|

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,{{Cite news |title=Miracle Marathon: Raleigh Man Tries to Walk Cross Country for Cancer |author=Hembree, Linda |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19840524&id=TkMsAAAAIBAJ&pg=5439,6019514 |work=Spartanburg Herald-Journal |date=24 May 1984 |access-date=2015-03-23}}{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19840525&id=27sbAAAAIBAJ&pg=3649,4928642|title=Jim Letherer chasing dream|website=The Times-News|date=25 May 1984|last1=Weeks|first1=Todd|access-date=21 March 2015}} and in 1985 he joined the 20-year reunion of the Selma to Montgomery march participants in Selma, Alabama.{{Cite news |title=20 Years Later, The Law Joins Marchers In Selma |date=4 March 1985 |author=Hirsley, Michael |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/03/04/20-years-later-the-law-joins-marchers-in-selma/ |access-date=2015-03-23}}