Stimulus yet to reach ‘double-whammied’ Selma

Full Story At  CNN.com

SELMA, Alabama (CNN) — To cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Selma is to share a stage with history. And these days, it is to come face-to-face with a bleak present.

Storefront after storefront is closed, and many of the buildings in the famous photos from the days of the historic March 1965 events have fallen into disrepair.

“It is very depressing,” Selma Mayor George P. Evans tells us during an evening walk down Broad Street in downtown. “People are not buying. People are not spending. Businesses are going out of business.”

This is the heart of Alabama’s “Black Belt,” and Selma is a reminder that a recession that has punished so many across America has hit hardest in places that were already struggling.