Day 4: The Voting Rights Institute and the Slavery Museum of Selma, Alabama

Edmund Pettus Bridge (photo by Savannah Reid, Multicultural Scholars 2012)

(Suzzanne Lacey (l.) Joanne Bland (r.)

posting by Ieisha McIntyre

The Voting Right Museum and Institute was the site of the fourth day of our civil rights journey.  And, how important for our young women to visit the sight where so many marched peacefully for our right to express our opinions and our duty as citizens of the United States of America.  We were able to tour the museum and hear from Joanne Bland (co-founder of the Museum, and participant in "Bloody Sunday" and the Selma-to-Montgomery march of 1965.  Later that summer, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signed The Voting Rights Act of 1965The actions of the marchers that summer of 1965, changed the lives of every American from that time on.  I know that it changed my life.  Not only because I have the right to vote anywhere my wondering soul chooses to live in these United States, but also because, on smoldering humid Alabama afternoon, I was able to touch history through the warm and generous hug of Joanne Bland.  

"Cheering." Selma, Alabama, March 1965.

KING SPEAKS IN SELMA

Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to the crowd in Selma, Alabama, after the first attempt at the march was aborted on March 9, 1965.

Courtesy of Library of Congress

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"Coca Cola Sign." Selma, Alabama, summer 1966.

 

 

"Nuns Singing in Tent." Vigil singing, inside temporary shelter at the "Berlin Wall," Selma, Alabama, March 1965.

"Deputy Lineup." Alabama Sheriff's deputies block progress of marchers, Selma, Alabama, March 1965

Image source: http://www.crmvet.org/images/pphillip.htm