As Black History month comes to a close, the African American Alumni Associates are not ceasing the remembrance of one of the most important movements in history. The event “‘Foot Soldiers’: Unsung Heroes and Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement” was held in Hughes-Trigg on Tuesday evening.
The program featured three speakers, Valda Montgomery, Jimmie Travis and Joanne Bland, all of whom were present during very significant incidents in the Civil Rights movement.
Valda Montgomery told of her experiences as a young child. She lived in Montgomery, Ala., and was a neighbor and good friend to Martin Luther King and his family. She told of her experiences, including the King house bombing and witnessing the bomber’s car making a getaway. She also told of her father opening their household to 33 freedom riders. This put her family in a position to be very vulnerable to violence.
Jimmie Travis spoke of his experiences while working to register black voters. The dangerous task to rally together voters ended in near death for Travis. He was shot by three white men with a machine gun. Travis was hit twice but survived.
“I should not be here. It is by the grace of God I am here speaking to you today,” Travis said.
Joanne Bland told the most emotionally intense story. She opened with the statement, “I was born in struggle. I don’t know anything else.”
At the age of 11, Bland had been jailed for her protests 13 times. On March 7, 1965, Bland and 600 other marchers were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. The infamous attack became known in history books as “Bloody Sunday.”
Bland gave a detailed description of the attack, which entailed bullwhips, cattle prods, billy clubs and tear gas.
“What I remember the most were the screams,” Bland said.
Many of the audience members expressed their passion about continuing the movement towards equality.
“All three stories were very powerful. It is one thing to read about the Civil Rights movement in history books, but it is a completely different experience to hear the stories firsthand,” sophomore Christina Mountz said.
