The Dawning of a New Era for Foot Soldiers Park!

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!”