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Help us move Ms. Bland’s legacy forward!
For nearly two decades, Ms. Bland’s historic tours have transformed Selma into a place of pilgrimage. Last year, we welcomed thousands of visitors to be immersed in the history of the Civil Rights Movement. This July, we’re raising $45,000 to purchase our first tour van in honor of the woman who made the tours possible. As more visitors find their way to Selma, our tours will carry her legacy forward.
We have already raised $10,000 and individual donors like you can help close the remaining $35,000 gap now.
Ms. Bland Tour Van Campaign
Help more people experience Selma’s history!
For nearly two decades, Ms. Bland’s historic tours have transformed Selma into a place of pilgrimage. Foot Soldiers Park is raising $45,000 to purchase a van that will expand access to our transformative civil rights tours in Selma. We’ve already raised $10,000. Help us raise the final $35,000 and carry Ms. Jo Ann Bland’s dream forward.
Your gift helps more students, families, educators, churches, and visitors experience Selma through guided tours rooted in firsthand history, sacred places, and the legacy of everyday foot soldiers.
Why the Selma Historic Tours matter
Ms. Bland dedicated her life to making sure the stories of ordinary people in the movement would not be forgotten. She led her tours as immersive learning experiences and today, every tour guide carries her vision and approach forward.
Our tours already bring visitors to 23 sites including the Dallas County Courthouse, Brown Chapel AME Church, George Washington Carver Homes, Good Samaritan Hospital, the future home of the Foot Soldiers Memorial, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This campaign will help us secure a dedicated van so more groups can experience this powerful journey together.
What Ms. Bland wanted visitors to carry forward
Ms. Bland wrote that her dream was for Selma to become a place of pilgrimage for all those who seek to right the wrongs of society, and that her vision for Foot Soldiers Park was to show every visitor, especially every child, that they have the power to make great change in their community. This new Ms. Bland van will help carry that dream forward and allow more people to stand where history happened, hear the stories of the foot soldiers, and leave with a deeper sense of responsibility to carry the movement forward in their own communities.
What your gift supports
- More access to guided Selma tours for visitors from near and far.
- Better capacity to serve small to mid size groups.
- Rich educational experiences for children and student groups.
- A lasting tribute to Ms. Bland’s vision, teaching, and commitment to preserving the stories of everyday foot soldiers.
Every gift helps more people encounter the history of the movement not as something distant, but as something lived, local, and still urgently relevant.
What visitors are saying
The fact that Jo Ann was a child activist is not lost on any of us. Seeing this movement through her eyes opens a window for all of us that is authentic with a rare view of what it was like to live there, through the most turbulent struggle for human and civil rights of the 20th Century.
Dr. Martha Bouyer, Creator of NEH’s field study for educators “Stony the Road We Trod”
The visit to Selma is always the highlight of any tour that I lead. To hear the testimonies of the foot soldiers and walk the sacred ground of the city is an experience EVERYONE should take!
Tour operator
Ms. Bland has been providing tours for my students from Wisconsin for over ten years. Ms. Bland helps each student connect personally with the history of Selma while also committing to an active life of positive social change.
Jodi Thesing-Ritter, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Excellent tour given by Jasmyn whose grandmother was a freedom fighter during the civil rights movement. Be sure to also check out their gift shop, which has t-shirts, mugs, magnets, etc.
J. Cruz, Tour guest
For over 15 years, I have been bringing over 1,000 people a year to Selma to be impacted by Jo Ann Bland. She brings those turbulent times to life and her story cuts right to the heart of the listener and makes them understand the struggle these brave Americans endured for freedom.
Bill Planer, Etgar 36 Civil Rights Journey
Ms. Barge was passionate, connected, personal, knowledgeable, honest. She invited us to not just to see, but experience and feel the movement through her own eyes and the eyes of her friends in Selma.
Tour guest
Help More People Experience Selma’s History
Support our campaign and help us share the stories of Ms. Bland and other foot soldiers with more people!