The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 has protected communities of color for 60 years from discriminatory voting laws and legislatures from drawing congressional maps that dilute their vote. But this week, the US Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that could strip the last remaining piece of the landmark civil rights law — ultimately making it powerless.

Where it All Started

The case, Callais v. Landry originated in Louisiana with a dispute over a new majority-Black voting district, which was created under federal court order to comply with the VRA. The Louisiana legislature had made redistricting changes, after the 2020 Census, drawing a new map with only one district out of six districts representing Black voters’ interests, despite the Black population being one-third of the state.

Black voters and civil rights groups sued the legislature, arguing that Black Louisianans face continued patterns of discrimination in voting and civic life, and the map exacerbated that treatment, unfairly diluting their representation in the state. In 2022, a federal court ruled in their favor, ordering a second majority-Black district.

In 2024, the legislature redrew the state’s voting districts including a second Black district. But white voters then filed suit, arguing that the new map violated their rights under the Constitution and race should not be a factor in creating electoral maps.

What’s at Stake in the Case

Section 2 of the VRA prohibits states from passing voting laws or drawing electoral maps that make it harder for Black or other voters of color to participate or elect their candidate of choice. The law also says that it doesn’t matter if the discrimination is accidental. If a law or map results in voters of color having less power, then it is illegal.

According to news reports, the Supreme Court justices appeared poised to weaken Section 2 of the VRA by limiting lawmakers from using race as a factor in drawing voting maps. If this happens, it will fundamentally change the landscape of voting rights and redistricting in the US with the future of the voting power of people of color hanging in the balance.

A ruling against the Black voters in the Callais case could:

• Strip communities of color of their political power and fair representation at all levels of government, particularly in the South. For example, according to The New York Times, a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South could be eliminated.
• Chill legislatures nationwide from drawing majority-minority districts
• Make it nearly impossible for voters to challenge discriminatory maps or voting practices
• Open the floodgates to a new era of discriminatory laws that suppress votes—not only of Black Americans, but of any community perceived as a threat to those in power.

Calling on Alabama to Step Up

Foot Soldiers Park is watching the case closely and calls on Alabama to pass its own Voting Rights Act SB7/HB60 to provide robust protections against racial discrimination in voting.

Key parts of the Alabama legislation include:

• Expanding voter access by allowing same-day voter registration, eliminate the need for specific reasons to vote absentee, and streamline the process for restoring voting rights for residents who were formerly incarcerated
• Creating new oversight and protections by requiring local governments with a history of discrimination to prove their voting laws don’t harm voters of color. The law would also establish a commission to investigate potential violations, and outlaw policies that result in disparities in electoral participation.
• Enhancing transparency and data collection by directing the Alabama Secretary of State to create a public statewide database of election and demographic information to foster transparency and evidence-based election administration.

A decision in the Callais case is expected in the coming months.

At Foot Soldiers Park – an organization based in Selma, the birthplace of the VRA and founded by Jo Ann Bland, a foot soldier who walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday – we are calling on Alabama lawmakers to act now and pass Alabama’s Voting Rights Act to protect the voting power of every Alabaman, regardless of race.

Because protecting voting rights isn’t just about keeping laws in place – it’s about preserving Selma’s legacy and protecting democracy itself.

Foot Soldiers Park has awarded its inaugural Jo Ann Bland Civil Rights Legacy Scholarships to two Selma-area students: Jo’Darius (JD) Hamilton and Rachel Curtis. This scholarship specifically honors students who are descendants of foot soldiers and who demonstrate civic commitment, academic excellence, and leadership aligned with the organization’s mission.

The awards were presented during a ceremony at the Foot Soldiers Park administrative suites on July 16. Founding partners CEO Kimberly Smitherman and civil rights icon Jo Ann Bland presented the scholarships in front of an audience of family members, staff, and community supporters.

Jo’Darius (JD) Hamilton

JD Hamilton, a graduate of Southside High School, will be attending Auburn University in the fall, in the Building Science program, entering the professional track in Construction Management. JD is the grandson of foot soldier Albert Southall Sr., the founder of Southall’s African American Literary and Arts Museum and Gallery inSelma. JD graduated with a 3.52 GPA, with courses in economics, government, writing, and STEM. He is also active in civic and community initiatives that build on his family’s legacy.

“It made me feel truly special to be one of the first two recipients. I’m grateful to the foot soldiers, and I just want to say thank you. What they did was so honorable, and I just feel very special,” JD told Foot Soldiers Park staff.

Rachel Curtis

Rachel Curtis graduated from Selma High School and will be attending Tuskegee University in the fall. Rachel is the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of foot soldiers, all of whom participated in 1965 civil rights marches. Her grandmother Rachel West Milhouse was the co-author of Selma, Lord, Selma, a first-hand account of civil rights marches of 1965. Her great-grandfather was Lonzy West, Sr. and her great-grandmother was the late Alice Martin West, a well-known Selma activist who helped more than 300 Black people register to vote by preparing them to pass the literacy test requirement at the time. Rachel completed a dual enrollment program with Wallace Community College and graduated with over 30 earned credits and a cumulative GPA of 3.21. Her studies included business finance, health sciences, and economics.

“I am appreciative and want to thank the foot soldiers. They’ve taught me that hard work and dedication pay off in the long run. Knowing that more scholars will be blessed with this scholarship after me makes me happy and it inspires me,” said Rachel.

Each recipient received a $2,000 scholarship and a commemorative photo with Ms. Bland. The award serves as a symbolic bridge between generations, honoring the legacy of civil rights activism while supporting the educational futures of today’s youth.

“These kids are so deserving. They’re the ones who are going to make a difference. I want them to remember the legacy of the people they represent, whose blood runs through their veins, the foot soldiers. They are the foot soldiers of today, and I’m incredibly proud and honored that they are our first recipients,” said Ms. Bland.

About the Scholarship

The Jo Ann Bland Civil Rights Legacy Scholarship is awarded to descendants of foot soldiers from Selma’s civil rights movement. The scholarship supports youth who embody the courage, vision, and civic spirit of the movement’s pioneers. Recipients are selected through an open application and review process.

This year marks the first iteration of what will become an annual scholarship opportunity. Foot Soldiers Park plans to expand the fund and support more students in Dallas County and beyond in the years to come.

“I’m super excited that we were able to give two scholarships to two very deserving residents and students here in Selma. I think that this is a step forward for our community in supporting our youth because we know the youth are our future. And this is just the beginning. We will continue to grow the amount of scholarships we give and the amount of funding that we give and we hope that we can get support from the community, from people all around the world so that we can do that for our youth.” – Kimberly Smitherman

Follow @footsoldierspark on Facebook and Instagram for photos and event updates.

“At Foot Soldiers Park, Juneteenth is not just symbolic, it’s strategic. It’s where truth and joy and memory and activation all come together. And we use that power of the holiday so we can meet people where they are.”

– Kimberly Smitherman, CEO and Founding Partner

At Foot Soldiers Park, we intentionally celebrate pivotal moments in civil rights history not only to honor the individuals and communities who were instrumental in societal progress and to ensure that their struggles are not forgotten, but to foster awareness of the challenges that those of our past have overcome and the lessons learned — because we know that awareness can inform and inspire present and future decisions.

This year’s Still We Rise Juneteenth celebration was no different. We commemorated June 19, 1865 when enslaved Black Americans in Texas finally learned that the Emancipation Proclamation officially ended slavery two years earlier.

The community joined us for a lively celebration chock full of live entertainment, dancing, carnival rides, face painting, good food, and an opportunity to support local businesses.

As part of our commitment to honoring Selma’s civil rights past, we recognized 1965 foot soldier Ms. Barbara Barge who continues to share her powerful story and work to preserve the legacy of Selma’s historic role in the racial justice movement by serving as one of Foot Soldiers Park’s tour guides.

Most importantly, the event served as a reminder of Selma’s long commitment to freedom and why today more than ever, we need to build on the resilience of those who came before us, cross bridges we haven’t crossed before, and do our best as civically active people to fuel lasting and positive change.

Just as enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, experienced delayed freedom in 1865, Selma’s Black residents today continue to face similar injustice. This ongoing struggle is evident in systemic inequality, persistent barriers to voting access, and profound community disinvestment.

“We want to make sure that we preserve our history, but also, to make sure that we utilize that history to activate our community and especially our youth,” Founding Partner and CEO, Kimberly Smitherman told attendees.

As part of the day’s events, Kim spoke to actor, comedian and radio host John Fugelsang on his SiriusXM show “Tell Me Everything”. She shared the key components of community activation and how tapping into the knowledge and expertise of the people who are most negatively affected by the harmful systems is just the first step, equipping them with the knowledge, skills and tools to change them is what drives real transformation.

“We don’t come in as saviors,” Kim told the host. “We [want] to make sure that we have an informed and engaged civic community so that they can know that their voices have power. They have the power to make change.”

Foot Soldiers Park impact and programmatic areas are focused on educating, employing, and empowering Selma’s residents and next generation of foot soldiers through civic education, youth leadership programs, art, economic development initiatives and strategic partnerships to build a vibrant, thriving and self-sustaining community.

“We refer to [the foot soldiers] as the ordinary people who did extraordinary things… and we want everybody to have that same sense of ability in their [own] voice [today],” said Kim.

You can listen to more of Kim’s interview on “Tell Me Everything” where she also talks about what other communities similar to Selma can learn from Foot Soldiers Park and how her personal background shaped her view of racial justice and the work ahead.

In addition, Kim Juneteenth’s opinion piece was featured on the news outlet Common Dreams where she emphasized further the significance of Juneteenth and why Foot Soldiers Park’s mission is so relevant today.

Looking ahead, as we celebrate our heroes of the past, we must also not forget that our democracy remains fragile, our liberties are under threat again, and as a resilient community, we need bold leaders to show the way.

This opinion piece, written by Foot Soldiers Park leaders Ms. Jo Ann Bland and Kimberly Smitherman, was published on the news outlet Common Dreams on June 19, 2025.

At Foot Soldiers Park, Juneteenth is more than a date on the calendar. It’s a declaration, a call to always remember, to resist, and to continue to reimagine what freedom looks like.

For the last four years Juneteenth has become a commemoration of historic significance that has become more powerful and more necessary. As a community, we gather not just to honor history, we gather to face the present and to envision a better future rooted in truth, justice, and collective power.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were finally told they were free—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. That delay wasn’t a historical oversight, it was an intentional strategy of suppression that today, still shows up through the systems we confront daily.

Today one thing is clear, slavery didn’t end, it evolved. It’s been institutionalized in the form of mass incarceration, labor exploitation, generational poverty, voter suppression, and policies that consistently and disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities. 160 years later, Black and Brown people are still profiled, surveilled, underpaid, and denied full access to justice.

And yet, we are still here. Still resisting. Still building our communities up. Still rising.

Our hometown Selma is ground zero for the struggle for voting rights and the fight for the socioeconomic prosperity of people of color in our country. We both span two generations of Black people in Selma. One of us was among the 600 foot soldiers who bravely marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and demanded voting rights for Black people – ultimately leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The other one of us was raised to carry that spirit of activism and determination to protect and preserve those rights for generations to come.

In 2021, at a historic moment for our country, we founded Foot Soldiers Park to preserve Selma’s legacy, memorialize the stories of the everyday people who fueled the Civil Rights Movement, and to position the city’s historical significance into an engine for liberation, economic development, and racial justice.

With a mission rooted in the legacy of Selma’s foot soldiers, we don’t shy away from the truth, we walk directly into it. Because that’s where change is born and transformation begins. We don’t just preserve history, we activate it. We innovate. We organize. We lead.
Juneteenth is a reminder of why the march for liberty and justice is not over, but a moment to recommit to the work ahead.

Despite Selma’s historical significance in shaping the very fabric of this country, the majority-Black city is still struggling to overcome generations of institutional racism and overall neglect. Forty-one percent of the population lives in poverty. Thirty-percent are suffering from food insecurity, and an abysmal $27,000 a year is the average income in the city.

When we founded Foot Soldiers Park, we had a clear goal – to transform Selma, ask hard questions and set a bold agenda to build generational wealth, protect our civil rights, and empower our youth to lead. We are campaigning to fund Selma’s first-ever community and education center, and foot soldiers memorial. This urgently needed hub will be a beacon for leaders, students, and educators to weave the rich tapestry of Selma’s Civil Rights Movement and serve as a conduit for ongoing scholarship in this critical field. As our civil rights are again under attack, we’ll serve as a catalyst for community-led action and civic participation, healing and restoration, youth engagement and activation – building the bench for the next generation of political, business and social justice leaders.

This Juneteenth we need to face the truth – there will be no erasure. What our history shows is how resilience can lead to transformation. Generation after generation we have turned pain into purpose, and memory into motivation to design systems that move us closer to justice.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “A right delayed is a right denied.” Juneteenth reminds us that justice delayed is not justice at all. Freedom withheld is not freedom for all. And the arc of the moral universe does not bend unless we bend it. Together.

For us Juneteenth is not just symbolic. It is sacred. It is strategic. It is where truth, joy, memory and action converge.

Every year we celebrate because our people’s story does not end in chains. We celebrate because our ancestors did more than survive; they organized, educated, resisted, and loved. We celebrate because freedom was never handed to us, we claimed it in 1865, in 1965 and we must claim it today.

In Selma, we never rest and we don’t sugarcoat the truth. We are the foot soldiers of 1965 and the foot soldiers of tomorrow – as agents of change, we will keep marching forward.

Jo Ann Bland and Kimberly Smitherman, both Selma natives, are the founding partners of Foot Soldiers Park. Ms. Bland was one of the youngest foot soldiers who walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 on Bloody Sunday. Ms. Smitherman is a next generation civil rights activist.

On March 22, 2025, Foot Soldiers Park’s very own Kimberly Smitherman was presented with the Perpetuating Empowerment Ignited By Mentors Leadership II award from the Selma Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority for her over 10 years of community involvement and activism and for her unwavering dedication to the city and people of Selma.

This distinguished award aims to identify and celebrate people who consistently demonstrate leadership qualities, such as initiative, organization, and the ability to inspire others – all characteristics that Kim has exemplified and continues to demonstrate throughout her career and role as an effective and inspiring leader.

The award is named in honor of two extraordinary women foot soldiers, Margaret Jones Moore and Amelia Boynton Robinson. Ms. Moore was a courageous educator and civil rights activist in Selma during the 1965 voting rights movement. As a teacher, she organized almost every Black teacher in the city to march to the courthouse demanding the right to vote. It was a key turning point in the protests leading up to Bloody Sunday.

Ms. Boynton Robinson is best known for her role as a prominent civil rights activist who was instrumental in building the voting rights movement in Selma. She made her home a center for strategy sessions for Selma’s civil rights battles, and was among the seventeen people beaten and left unconscious during the Bloody Sunday march. She was also the first Black woman to run for Congress from Alabama.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Leadership II Award from the Selma Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., in the names of two extraordinary women, Margaret Jones Moore and Amelia Boynton Robinson,” said Kim. “Their legacies of fearless activism and unwavering commitment to justice are the foundation upon which we build today. At Foot Soldiers Park, we carry their torch forward, igniting, empowering, and perpetuating the movement for equity, truth, and transformation. This recognition is not mine alone. It belongs to the people of Selma and every hand helping to shape a brighter future.”

Congratulations, Kim! Well deserved!

We are thrilled to announce that Foot Soldiers Park has been selected to receive a Civic Entrepreneur grant from the Trust for Civic Life, a new grantmaking collaborative working to create opportunities and spaces for communities to find common ground, connect in new and meaningful ways, solve problems together, and feel confident in a shared future.

This funding will help us deepen our civic engagement efforts and power-building strategies. We believe that community power starts with informed, connected, and active citizens, and this grant allows us to cultivate exactly that.

We will expand our work to create a more civically engaged community by hosting neighborhood-led forums, youth civic education events, and organizing training sessions that equip residents with the tools to lead and advocate for lasting change.

“This investment in Selma is not just about a program—it’s about honoring our legacy while building a future where civic engagement is vibrant, accessible, and transformational,” said Foot Soldiers Park CEO, Kimberly Smitherman. “We can’t wait to put this grant to work for the people of Selma.”

The Trust for Civic Life’s Civic Entrepreneur program supports over 100 grassroots projects in rural communities each year, helping bring people together through innovative and locally rooted ideas. From canning clubs to bike repair initiatives, these projects demonstrate what’s possible when communities are trusted to lead.

Foot Soldiers Park was nominated for the grant by dozens of local leaders and community members close to our work. Of the over three hundred nominations received, only 52 were given grants to activate in their communities.

“Each of the Civic Entrepreneur grantees is using their creativity to get more people interested and involved in their communities,” said Charlie Brown, Trust for Civic Life Executive Director. “These grantees know what their community members want and what resonates with them, and we are excited to provide the resources that will help bring their ideas to life.”

We are excited to partner with the Trust for Civic Life to spark local civic participation and get more people in Selma involved in working together to tackle the community issues that they care about.

In March, we welcomed thousands of visitors to Selma to honor the original foot soldiers who stepped into history 60 years ago. We commemorated the 1965 activists’ sacrifice, stood in the shadow of their courage, and carried their legacy forward through storytelling, service, and celebration.

From the screening of a forceful documentary featuring foot soldiers from the 1960s, including our founder Jo Ann Bland, to the voices of our new National Youth Advisory Board (YAB) members, our anniversary event was inspiring, unifying and thought-provoking. Dozens of Black women judges from across Alabama, including Vernetta Perkins, the first female district court judge in Dallas County, joined us and retraced the foot soldiers’ steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday.

Together with our vibrant community, we listened to the stories of foot soldiers, some of whom were children at the time, witnessed law enforcement brutally beating activists or experienced it themselves.

“[State troopers] had billy clubs. They had tear gas,” said foot soldier Florence Ford, describing Bloody Sunday when she and other activists tried to cross the Bridge. “And we ran as fast as we could. And the horses were still running behind us and trying to run down on us.”

Today, as we look back on the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches, we are humbled by the fortitude and bravery of those who came before us and paved the way for some of the most sacred rights we have as individuals and a democratic nation.

“I’m very, very grateful for my involvement in [the marches],” said foot soldier Jeanette Howard who was one of the seventeen injured activists that day. “I call it a revolution because it was more than a movement that changed the world. The struggle continues, however.”

We also heed their words, and recognize the long road ahead. To that end, at Foot Soldiers Park we’re working with young people to learn and grow as informed and inspired leaders, ready to take on the ongoing civil rights challenges and chart their own brighter future. We are developing a robust national youth platform for civic engagement, peer learning and leadership development to serve as a political bench and movement builder.

At the event, we pinned this year’s new class of red coats as YAB members. We also inaugurated our new young adult group – the gold coats – former YAB members who’ve graduated from high school and will be turning 19. They will serve as “elders” for the red coats, offering advisory support and fundraising activities.

“What excites me most is seeing future generations of YAB build on this foundation, reaching even greater heights and achieving things we’ve only dreamed of. The work continues and the potential is limitless,” said Sydney Pritchett, one of the gold coats.

“One of the most powerful moments of the 60th anniversary was seeing the unity and passion of everyone coming together to celebrate our history, especially those who traveled here,” said Jolie Jackson, another YAB member. “It really emphasized the significance of Selma’s historic events and the importance of our voices.”

The anniversary event was a powerful marker for Foot Soldiers Park as we step into the next 60 years focused on providing Selma with the opportunity to position its historical significance as an engine for economic development and liberation, and cultivating and training the next generation of changemakers and leaders to transform their own communities.

Dr. King, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, famously said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” And although we are still affected, we can and do dream of a future free from the shackles of racism, bigotry, and hatred which we’ve faced for hundreds of years.

For those who started marching 60 years ago, for those who’ve carried their legacy forward, and for those future foot soldiers who will ensure that while history is not forgotten, it’s also not repeated, we stand with you, hand in hand.

“What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It’s all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice, and we shall overcome.”

— President Lyndon B. Johnson

By Carey Fountain, Director of Programs and Partnerships, Foot Soldiers Park

This past weekend in Selma felt like history unfolding all over again—but this time, through the lens of a projector, the voices of filmmakers from around the world, and the energy of a community hungry for healing, art and new perspectives.

The event was transformative! For Selma. For Selma’s youth. For every guest who walked through the doors of the Walton Theater. And for me.

It was an honor to host filmmakers and creatives from every corner of the U.S. and the globe, with over 200 film submissions. This event was about more than just showcasing great art—it was about placing Selma at the center of storytelling once again. Our aim was to create space for the kinds of stories that challenge conventions, uplift, and connect us—and that’s exactly what happened.

Many of the attendees had never stepped foot in a movie theater before, including some of the young people who came with their schools. One student shared after a screening, “Even though [in the film] they had financial problems, they still pushed forward and followed their dreams. That really spoke to me.” That’s the power of cinema—to inspire, encourage and give people a chance to reflect or see themselves in the stories of others in real time.

Pamela Davis Noland, whose short film Room for Dessert won Best U.S. Short, delivered a story that stuck to our ribs in every way possible. Originally written as a stage play in 2015, it was born out of grief and resistance during a time of heightened racial violence. Her film, she told us, was about “what happens when justice is no longer enough.” In her words:

“This is our contribution to that foot soldier fight. My husband and I were both born in 1965, right when all the things in Selma were going on. Sixty years later, we’re still fighting. This is how we fight—with our stories.”

We were all moved, and I’m still thinking about her film.

Judge Jimmy Nunn, our county’s probate judge and a long-standing public servant, reminded us how film can serve as a bridge between generations:

“There’s so much that you can learn from films… especially for our children. Most of them weren’t born in the ’50s or ’60s. If they don’t read it in a book or hear it from someone, how else will they know? This festival helps make history real—and part of the educational process.”

That’s why at Foot Soldiers Park, we put youth at the heart of everything we do including this festival. On Saturday April 5, we held our Student Film Showcase featuring young filmmakers’ work hailing from Alabama to Appalachia:

• Foot Soldiers Park’s Youth Advisory Board in collaboration with Troy University film professor Will Jacks and his students
• Best Buy Teen Tech Center at Wallace Community College in Selma
• Appalshop, a media, arts, and education center for students aged 14-24, located in Whitesburg, Kentucky in the southern Appalachian region

These were stories shaped by young voices, rooted in local experience and global possibility. Seeing their films on the big screen before an audience? That’s the kind of moment that can transform and stick with young talent—for a lifetime.

It was a privilege to work alongside the festival’s jury, including:

• B.K. Fulton, producer
• Omar Turner, CEO of Binns Media Group
• Katie Fernandez, ESPN Senior Director
• Loki Mulholland, filmmaker, Foot Soldiers Park Board member and descendant of a foot soldier
• Toni Toney, Alabama educator artist
• Donovan Duncan, Executive Vice President of Urban Strategies, Inc. and Foot Soldiers Park Board chair

It was exciting to see the festival receive attention beyond Selma. Actress Whoopi Goldberg sent us words of encouragement and support through her good friend Juror Fulton.

“Keep going,” Ms. Goldberg said. “Art can heal!”

Juror Mulholland summed up the power of this festival beautifully:

“Film moves people’s hearts. It tells the stories that some are trying to erase. That’s why festivals like this matter—especially in a place like Selma.”

And finally, for many of us who live and work here, this festival wasn’t just about watching movies—it was about making space for the next chapter of Selma’s story.

In many ways, it felt like giving birth. Painful. Emotional. Yet profoundly beautiful. What came out of that process was giving life to something new—something we can grow together. And now, our charge is to nurture the seeds we planted.

Thank you to every volunteer, partner, juror, filmmaker, funder, student, and dreamer who helped make this festival a success. Selma needed this and we are grateful for your commitment and energy.

Until next year—and every month in between.

With love and respect,
Carey Fountain

“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

So we’re going to stand up amid horses. We’re going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We’re going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We’re going to stand up amid tear gas! We’re going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 25, 1965

Six decades ago on March 7, 1965 hundreds of people, young and old, marched to ensure that African Americans could exercise their right to vote. For days, they didn’t stop despite police brutality that left many injured. On March 9th, Dr. Martin Luther King led roughly 2,500 people to the Pettus Bridge before turning the marchers around to obey court orders. And on March 21, thousands of people joined along the way from Selma to Montgomery, with roughly 25,000 people entering the capital on the final leg of the march. On March 25, the marchers made it to the entrance of the Alabama State Capitol building, with a petition for Gov. George Wallace.

The Voting Rights Act was passed by Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law on August 6, 1965. This historic legislation was designed to eliminate legal barriers at the state and local level that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment — after nearly a century of unconstitutional discrimination.

This 60th anniversary, Foot Soldiers Park calls for a New March on Selma – a call for bold new action to ignite change in which our communities have the resources and tools to exercise their civil rights and duties as equal citizens, build wealth, access education and gain job skills. A call for healing from generational trauma and most importantly, a call to rise up again and shape our own futures.

Every jubilee, tens of thousands of people visit Selma to retrace the steps of the foot soldiers of 1965 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, including US Presidents, members of Congress and other dignitaries to showcase their respect and commitment to the civil rights movement. But when we look back, the majority Black Selma has reaped little reward for its iconic status in American history.

This 60th anniversary, it is vitally important to honor the sacrifices of those who marched for our voting rights before us, risking their lives and livelihoods. Their courage and resilience is what inspires and guides us as we take on our own journey to justice and liberation.

Today, it is urgent that we move beyond remembrance and translate those sacrifices into steps to build a better future for Selma, for ourselves and for future generations in spite of shifting politics, new challenges and persistent disinvestment.

At Foot Soldiers Park we have a clear purpose – to fuel the civil rights movement of the past, present and future as a means to achieve racial justice, economic prosperity, and liberty for all. As we look to the next 60 years in Selma and beyond, we are working to drive impact through:

• Providing the Selma community with the opportunity to position its historical significance as an engine for economic development and liberation
• Educating young people and adults about their civic duty and training them to advocate for change within their own communities
• Arming Selma residents with the knowledge and tools for financial literacy and homeownership to build long-term financial security
• Co-creating with young people a robust national youth platform for civic engagement, peer learning, organizing and leadership development
• Offering resources and services that center on healing the whole self – body, spirit and mind – from the trauma of historical oppression as a pathway to true equity and liberation

On this 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, despite the challenges ahead of us, we invite you to stand strong with us and march for a new day of self-determination, self actualization, unity and transformation.

60th Anniversary Commemoration

Join our team for a commemoration event on March 8, 2025 with original and future foot soldiers, family-friendly festivities, live music and more!