Everyone in the greater Madison community is invited to a special potluck celebration and presentation--honoring visiting civil rights leader Joanne Bland of Selma, AL--at James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 2146 E. Johnson Street (a storefront building just behind East High School, halfway between North St. and Packers Ave.). The potluck will begin following the 11 am service at about 12:15 pm, with Ms. Bland's presentation beginning at about 1 pm. She will compellingly relate important historic events—and also share the important story of countless young people and others who’ve built a supportive bridge connecting Madison with Selma.

Joanne Bland was 11 at the time of the Selma to Montgomery March--but already a veteran of the movement who'd been arrested countless times. In 1965, she was living in a county with a majority black population, in which officials upholding white supremacist principles made sure that blacks represented barely 2 percent of registered voters. Anyone who has heard her relate the events of those historic days as she remembers them through the eyes of an 11 year old cannot help but be deeply moved.

Here she relates the story of “Bloody Sunday” –where hundreds of non-violent black protestors met brutal violence at the hands of Alabama state troupers. Faced with the reality of these horrific events, thousands of people of all races and creeds from around the country and around the world were inspired to travel to Selma to join the marchers, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I was too far back to really hear anything that was said down front. But suddenly, we heard screams and gunshots-- what we thought were gunshots. And the people started screaming, and people turned, and then the police came in from behind and on the sides. We were completely surrounded. They just started beating people. People were being trampled, not only by the police and the horses, but by each other, trying to get away. It was just pandemonium. It was horrible.

"Blood was everywhere on the bridge. The screams are what I remember the most, you know, and the horses that were so afraid that they would rear to try to get away from the people. And these men relentlessly plowing the horses into the crowd, and the gunshots I heard turned out to be tear gas canisters exploding, and then the tear gas burning your eyes. Can't breathe, can't see. I mean, we panicked and couldn't get away. People were laying everywhere….

“And yet two weeks later, thanks to the courage of so many ordinary citizens, an outcry from around the country and the nation, and the success of Dr. King in achieving a court order-- those same state troopers who were beating us were now ordered to ensure our safety on the 50 mile walk to the state capital in Montgomery… Several months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.”

Ms. Bland is a co-founder and past director of the Selma-based “National Voting Rights Museum,” a grassroots-built experiential museum that chronicles the lives of the hundreds of unsung heroines and heroes of the civil rights movement. Over the last several years, dozens of UW-Madison students have journeyed to Selma, where they have been instrumental in supporting the museum and its associated programs, including extensive work in an ongoing oral history project that seeks to capture the untold stories of the hundreds of unsung heroines and heroes of the black civil rights movement. In recent years, these students took on major responsibility for the opening of an innovative experiential museum that evocatively depicts the experience of a day in the life of a slave.

It’s an experience that many of the students say has opened their eyes in life-changing ways, and dozens of those who’ve made the Madison to Selma trek have returned with a resolve to dedicate their lives to social justice.

Though the bridges built between Madison and Selma have been strong, they now need to be expanded beyond the UW into the broader Madison community. Currently, no future trips are planned by UW students, and the future of this important program is uncertain. Ms. Bland will tell you that our community’s support of the museum and other grassroots activism in Selma has been transformative—but the effect on people here in Madison who’ve been touched by that important legacy is no less profound. At a time when Madison’s racial and ethnic diversity becomes greater with each passing day, we find ourselves at an important crossroads. One of the ways that we can face this crossroads is with programs that instill in all of us—especially our young people—the importance of community-building that underlies the stories and the ongoing nature of the civil rights struggle.

Please join us this Sunday to hear Ms. Bland’s inspiring message, and to find out how you can be involved in building Dr. King’s “beloved community” here in Madison.

For complete information, and links to audio recordings of Ms. Bland, please go to www.forwardforum.net .

More information, and links to recent radio programs on this topic can be found there.