Frances Cleveland: Living Foot Soldiers Park’s Vision of Community-Driven Change

From Survival to Service

Frances Cleveland, 50 has been Foot Soldiers Park’s Civic Engagement Manager for the organization’s Civic Engagement Corps (CEC) for almost a year. Her journey from single mother to factory worker to Program Manager for Foot Soldiers Park’s Civic Engagement Corps (CEC), the organizing arm of the organization, embodies its transformative vision: that lasting change comes not from outside experts, but from trusted community members who understand Selma’s struggles and possibilities.​

Born and raised in Selma, Frances absorbed her community’s history not in textbooks but through family conversations. Her mother and aunt were foot soldiers fighting for voting rights during the Civil Rights Movement. Yet for years, Frances was too busy surviving—working since age 15, becoming a teenage mother at 14, earning her GED while raising her daughter.

“I lost out on a lot of things because I worked all the time,” recalled Frances. “I had to take care of my daughter, and I didn’t want to have to depend on anybody else.”

She worked restaurant jobs, call center jobs, drove forklifts, and supervised manufacturing teams for Hyundai. She was embedded in Selma, but disconnected from its civic legacy.​

This changed when she was invited to join the Civic Engagement Corps (CEC). The CEC is the civic engagement program which is part of the organization’s Civil Rights in Action impact area. The CEC members are trained to lead voter outreach, civic education and community-based organizing in Selma.

Frances wasn’t looking for a career change at the time. But when she started working with the community something clicked. Here was work rooted in her own community’s history—work that honored the sacrifice of those who came before and invited people to exercise their civic duty today.​

Building Leaders from Within

Frances’s leadership skills were noticed and she moved from CEC captain overseeing one of CEC’s canvassing teams to program manager overseeing the entire program in less than a year. She is an example of Foot Soldiers Park’s core philosophy: invest in people who already belong. As a captain engaging directly with community members, Frances excelled. She understood how to train and organize people, build trust and lead to get things done. When others weren’t able to deliver, Frances stepped up to lead all four CEC teams—twenty-nine members strong.

Being promoted to Civic Engagement Manager meant she needed to gain new skills and learn how to be even more effective. One area she knew she needed to improve was her computer skills and digital literacy. She was also worried that she didn’t know everything about civic engagement or civil rights history, and speaking in front of “important people” terrified her. But reflecting back on her lived experiences she realized something crucial: leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about caring enough to keep learning and showing up.​

Her moments of doubt could have ended her Foot Soldiers Park journey, but CEO Kimberly Smitherman saw her commitment and potential for growth and decided to invest in her–covering the costs of computer literacy courses and mentoring her. Staff members also believed in her when she didn’t always believe in herself, reminding her that support was always available. Today, she has earned two certificates in computer skills and trauma facilitation that she applies on a daily basis in her work. All of this support can be best seen through the results of her efforts—increased voter turnout among her target audiences by 20%.

“Frances is the embodiment of showing up—even in uncertainty—with a caring heart and a genuine willingness to learn, grow, and lead,” said Kimberly.

Cycles of Empowerment in Action

Frances’s story is where Foot Soldiers Park’s vision crystallizes. Frances doesn’t just register voters. She does it as someone who lives in Selma and can relate to people’s disillusionment with civic structures and engagement. She channels her experience and knowledge into action. When a skeptical South Side High School student insisted voting wouldn’t matter, Frances didn’t lecture. She connected him to a larger truth about his place in Selma’s history. As a young Black man from Selma, the odds were strong that his family had lived through the discrimination and disenfranchisement the foot soldiers fought against. Even if he didn’t know all of the details, his existence in this moment—with the right to vote—was built on their struggle. Voting meant honoring their legacy. The result? The young man registered along with seven other first time voters who joined the conversation.​

“Our people lost their lives to get us the right to vote. That alone should be enough for you to do something,” Frances says. She told the young student, “I don’t even know anything about your [extended family], but I hurt for them, knowing that they lost their lives so we can have rights, to make our voice be heard, to get out and make some changes, no matter how long it takes.”

Frances is inspired to be a part of Foot Soldiers Park vision—to build a new generation of CEC members, trusted peers in the community who can advance change while developing the confidence, skills, and civic connection to sustain it.​

She now stands before Selma residents not as an external agent of change, but as proof that community members, regardless of age, can become Selma’s leaders—preserving their community’s legacy and investing in its future.​