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!

As we enter a new year, we are marking a major milestone with our very first impact report.

We’re excited to share our inaugural impact report! This report marks a significant milestone for Foot Soldiers Park – a celebration of the progress that our organization, community and supporters have made together and an opportunity to reflect on the journey that brought us where we are today.

For years, our co-founders Chief Strategy Officer Ms. Jo Ann Bland and CEO Kimberly Smitherman recognized a need to safeguard the stories of the Selma people who created the conditions for the marches across Edmund Pettus Bridge, the places where they gathered, and their critical role in shaping voting rights in the U.S. They also recognized an opportunity to leverage the city’s historic legacy as a blueprint for fighting for the civil rights of today and as an engine for economic development in a city that has struggled for decades to provide its residents real opportunity to thrive.

In 2021, the two Selma natives founded Foot Soldiers Park with the vision to improve the wellbeing of Selma’s underserved residents by bringing economic opportunities to the city and developing amenities, resources, and programs that are co-created with and for the benefit of the community.

In just three years, Foot Soldiers Park has made huge strides toward building a vibrant community-driven organization poised to lead, innovate and build a brighter future for Selma.

As we look ahead with a bigger vision and more ambitious goals, take a moment to join us in celebrating the stories, partnerships, and milestones that have shaped who we are today and where we are headed.

To all of the community members we are grateful for your trust and partnership. And to all of our partners, donors and funders we value your commitment and investment in our success.

Dreams really do come true, one brick at a time!

October 28, 2024 was a great day for downtown Selma! Two years after renovations began at the Selma Times-Journal building on Water Ave, Selma’s own Foot Soldiers Park and Common Power, a Seattle-based civic engagement organization, came together to cut the ribbon on their shared building, signifying their commitment to Selma and to each other.

The historic Selma-Times Journal buildings sit at the crossroads of history and on one of the busiest streets in Selma –a perfect place to welcome visitors and a place of significance and pride for our local community.

Foot Soldiers Park started as the dream of our founder, Ms. Jo Ann Bland, a foot soldier in the Bloody Sunday march of 1965, who has dedicated her life to the preservation of our history and the movement for voting rights and democratic freedoms locally and nationally.

Foot Soldiers Park CEO, Kimberly Smitherman along with Ms. Bland, welcomed the ribbon cutting ceremony with excitement for this new milestone in the organization’s growth and were joined by local leaders and community members.

“This is not just a ribbon cutting,” says Kimberly. “This is a combination of dedication, passion and collaboration that has taken place for us to be able to preserve this historic building.” The new offices will provide a strong foundation for achieving Foot Soldiers’ mission and an important step forward in making the organization’s vision a reality.

Seattle’s Heyday Holdings, LLC purchased the building in 2022, and from the start, were dedicated to helping Foot Soldiers Park to have the space to envision and build a new future for Selma; one that respects and celebrates the legacy of the original foot soldiers of the civil rights movement, providing an immersive experience for visitors from around the globe to come and learn, and most importantly a place where young people can convene, dream and work on what they want their future to be .

Steve Romein of Heyday Holdings, LLC shared “We asked Ms. Jo Ann what she needed, and she said ‘I need a room that will hold at least three buses full of fifty people each.’” Even though at the end the new auditorium is closer to two-bus capacity, Romein and his partner kept Bland’s vision front and center which includes a gift shop and soon to be developed park, memorial, playground and a community center that will be nested at the heart of the George Washington Carver homes (GWC) community. The Selma Times-Journal covered the event and further highlighted Ms. Bland’s vision: “I wanted a building that could open in George Washington Carver homes that was so nice that everybody would want to come there, because we rarely put anything nice in the hood. Things are thrown up there and left, and the Foot Soldiers Park will not be like that. It means too much to me and too much to the foot soldiers.”

For Foot Soldiers, the new headquarters at the historic Selma Times-Journal Building is more than an act of preservation; it’s a symbol of hope for Selma’s future as a beacon for transformation, liberation and ingenuity.

“As we’re opening the doors of this building, we’re also opening doors to new possibilities, new collaborations, more visitors and a renewed commitment to serving our community,” said Kimberly. “We’re excited to start the next chapter of the Selma Times-Journal buildings as the Foot Soldiers’ new headquarters and we invite you all to be a part of it!”

We’ve made it! Today is the day to show up at the polls and cast your right to vote if you haven’t done so already!

Remember –the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement risked their lives in Selma and around the country to secure your right to select the people who represent you at all levels of government! Please don’t take this precious right for granted.

Here in Selma, the Foot Soldiers Park Community Engagement Corps (CEC) initiative has been out in force with voter education efforts, civic engagement, youth outreach, and community engagement activities.

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

• Over 2,743 hours logged in training, phonebanking, canvassing, community billboarding and hosting special events
• 5000+ cards with QR codes distributed for people to register to vote
• 10,480 phone calls made to potential voters
• 4 voter registration block parties organized in Selma’s voting districts
• 100% of Selma’s high schools visited to register 18-year-old students to vote
• 57 applications facilitated to restore voting rights to ex-felons

As in 1965, voting is still at the heart of the civil rights movement and we’re proud to carry the legacy of the original foot soldiers forward.

We are thrilled to unveil our updated logo and brand new website! Foot Soldiers Park continues to grow and evolve which is reflected in our refreshed brand identity and newly designed website which captures the fullness of our story, the depth of our values and ambitious plans we have for the future.

Our new website offers a deeper dive into the heart and soul of our mission and introduces you to the people who lead and shape the organization. Browsing through the new site you can explore the rich history of Selma and the stories of the everyday activists we lift up, you can learn about the vital work we do to preserve the legacy of the original foot soldiers and the projects we undertake to revitalize the community and celebrate its resilience.

Follow our journey as we embark on meeting our bold goals and read about the philosophy guiding our approach, and the ways in which supporters, partners and collaborators can become active contributors to our vision. Website visitors can now easily navigate through the latest developments for FSP’s future Park & Education Center, plan their Journeys for the Soul tour with Ms. Bland, learn about our areas of focus, and stay in the know through our latest news and stories.

Our refreshed logo embodies our commitment to collective action, unity and promise to the next generation of young civil rights leaders.

Taking inspiration from the historic Selma marches of 1965, the Foot Soldiers Park updated logo serves as a powerful and lasting tribute to the past while advancing boldly into the future. Featuring a young girl leading the marchers across the Edmund Pettus bridge, the logo is a testament to the enduring spirit of grassroots activism and the unmistaken power of the younger generation, their energy and role as leaders in the making of lasting change. The arch above the marchers represents the intersection of history and progress, the bridging of past and future with the promise of what’s to come as the younger generation of foot soldiers leads the journey forward.

Every detail behind our updated brand identity, from our vibrant color palette, dynamic image collages and bold typography conveys the Foot Soldiers Park spirit, community-driven personality, and our staff’s determination, ambition and energy to make a difference. Our new logo type Bayard Regular is named after the civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin and serves as a reminder that every step we take is meant to bridge the struggle of the past with our bright vision for the future or as our Board Chair, Donovan Duncan would say “When people think of ‘Foot Soldiers Park’, I want them to think about liberation and joy.”

2024 has been a milestone year for Foot Soldiers Park. Enhancing our communications channels and solidifying our brand as a standard for what social justice activism looks like. As we continue to grow our organization, expand our scope and build broader support, we are excited to invite you to follow our journey and support our mission to preserve and memorialize the Civil Rights history of Selma, bring economic and cultural revitalization to the city and its residents, and prepare the next generation of activists to continue the fight against racial injustice and voter suppression.

Explore our new site and thank you for your ongoing support,

Kimberly Smitherman

Eighteen-year-old Micah Thomas dreams of becoming President of the United States one day.

“I always say, my plan isn’t to make America great again, but I’ll lead America to a great point where everyone has the rights and freedoms that we all deserve,” says the high school graduate who currently serving as the vice president for the National Youth Advisory Board (YAB) at Foot Soldiers Park.

Micah’s White House plans have a lot to do with YAB and the lessons that he’s learned from the Foot Soldiers Park founder Ms. Jo Ann Bland. The program, a part of the organization’s civic education and engagement work, nurtures and empowers young leaders, ages 14 to 18 to become the next generation of foot soldiers. The goal is to develop young activists who are informed by the rich lessons of the civil rights past, and armed to serve as strategic racial justice leaders and a national resource on young people’s needs and perspectives on social and political issues.

Micah joined YAB his junior year. He first learned of Foot Soldiers Park and the program when he saw its members marching in a local parade wearing their signature red blazers. “I love suits and I said to myself ‘I gotta get my hands on one of those nice red coats’,” he says. He started investigating Foot Soldiers Park further and discovered Ms. Bland’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. Micah was impressed by the possibility of being educated by someone with firsthand experience in the fight for voting rights and who is so passionate about the power of young people.

YAB educates cohorts of 20 young people from across the country on a range of topics, including civil rights history, organizing and social movements, building a strong network, social justice and advocacy. Its members are immersed in the civic ecosystem – providing an inside look at the institutions and careers affecting societal change, including law schools and legal advocates, the Alabama state house and the US Capitol and lawmakers and legislative advocates.

These experiences have shaped Micah’s career plans and his approach to becoming president. Similar to Ms. Bland, he wants to design pathways for underserved communities to share their perspectives more broadly. He’s particularly interested in first changing the prison system.

”I want to be a criminal justice lawyer, specifically leading pro bono cases,” Micah says.
“As I’ve looked into our criminal justice system, it doesn’t hold the promise that our country has guaranteed the American people. After practicing law, I want to go on the political side to help communities, go beyond the local level, and ultimately, become president.”

Already Micah is employing future-forward thinking as YAB Vice President and developing a YAB Alumni Association to facilitate those who have graduated from high school in staying connected to Foot Soldiers Park.

“The next generation of foot soldiers are those that know where we come from, know what we’ve been through. We’re not only people of color, but people everywhere that have helped and contributed to civil rights,” Micah says. “My task is to be a lawyer and fix the justice system. That’s the fight I’ve chosen as a next generation foot soldier. As Ms. Bland says, ‘We have to somehow change the world in our own way.”

March 7, 1965 was unseasonably cold for Selma. The sky was gray, despite the sun trying to peek through the clouds. The wind gusts rustled through the trees at the George Washington Carver homes, the city’s largest public housing project, and moved the damp air around, making the 40-degree day seem even brisker.

Down the street, just outside Brown Chapel, a mass of 600 activists huddled under blankets lining Sylvan Street. Their plan was to walk across the nearby Edmund Pettus Bridge in protest of the cruel treatment of Black people and denial of their basic civil rights. The indelible images that came later that day, which became known as Bloody Sunday, documented both heroic bravery and unspeakable brutality – shocking the world and focusing national attention on the rampant injustice and racism faced by millions of Black Americans.

Longleaf pine trees surrounded the marchers that day and lined the routes where they walked in protest, bearing witness to the determination of everyday people, the viciousness that they faced fighting for their freedoms, and ultimately, their triumphs.

Many of the trees along the march routes have since died or been cut down. Others were planted after 1965, but on the Foot Soldiers Park & Education Center site, there is a canopy of trees that were there in March of 1965 and remain today.

Foot Soldiers Park considers both sets of trees as witnesses to Selma’s past, present and future. They are being incorporated into the design of the Park & Education Center, framing the open public space at the center of the campus and surrounding the memorial that will commemorate the marches. The “witness trees” will serve as landmarks and testament to the history made through the series of marches, observers of the present, and bearers of hope for the future.

Interestingly, longleaf pine forests used to cover vast expanses of Alabama, but are currently endangered due to a federal policy of fire suppression. The trees need regular fire to thrive, but by the 1920s most were gone. Before that, they played a key role in the growth and development of the early US economy. Enslaved Black people harvested turpentine from the pines and cut the forests for lumber. Legendary for its strength, durability, and usefulness, the lumber was considered the “King’s Wood” and used for shipbuilding when America was first colonized. It was also used for building large homes in cities in the South. But similar to Selma, the forests benefited others outside of the region more than within it. The trees were in high demand in the Northeast, used for flooring, joists, house paneling, and timber for the construction of warehouses, railroad cars, bridges and wharves. Today, less than 5% of the forests remain in the South.

True to Foot Soldiers Park’s approach of solving intersectional challenges and maximizing resources, the organization is considering building a nursery of the pines on the Park & Education Center campus for multiple purposes. The trees would serve as a nature-based solution for storing carbon, a driver of revenue and jobs through the sale of new trees to current restoration sites across the country, and/or producer of the long needles of the pines commonly used for “Longleaf Pine straw” mulch, a multi-million dollar wholesale industry.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was one of the most important laws passed in the civil rights era.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) was signed into law on August 6 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, not long after civil rights activists in Selma successfully marched to Montgomery.

The law was considered the crown jewel of the civil rights era because it guaranteed voting rights to all citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity, and created political opportunities for Black and Brown communities to fully participate in the political system on an equal footing with others.

Before the VRA was signed, states deliberately defied court rulings and implemented measures like poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent Black people from voting. As a result, Black the political power of Black communities was effectively non-existent, even in areas where they held the majority.

The VRA stopped states from enacting voting policies that were racially discriminatory. By the early 1970s, disparity in registration rates between white and Black voters dropped from nearly 30% in the early 1960s to 8%. The law also enabled the election of hundreds of federal, state, and local candidates of color in states with a history of discrimination like Alabama. In 2008, Black voter turnout was nearly equal to that of white voters for the first time, and the first Black president Barack Obama was elected.

Still, decades of backlash to the VRA and other legislative victories made by the civil rights movement have slowly whittled away at the progress made, and in recent years, those attacks reached a highpoint.

In 2010, state legislatures started passing measures under the guise of protecting elections against voter fraud – rolling back early voting, eliminating same-day registration, disqualifying ballots filed outside home precincts and creating demands for photo ID at polling places, all of which negatively impacts Black voters.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the VRA, leading to 29 states passing 94 laws over the next decade that make it more difficult to vote, especially in communities of color.

As a result, in Alabama in 2020, turnout in Black-majority Selma was just 57%, among the worst in the state.