“I wasn’t following Dr. King. Do you understand? I was not following them. I was WITH them.
And there’s a difference,” Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest person who took part in the
crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. She was fourteen.
Over lunch today, Dr. Lowery told us about hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speak at Brown
Chapel AME Church in Selma, and how he didn’t speak to her ears – he spoke to her spirit. With
a twinkle in her eye, she talked about having been in jail fifteen times before her fifteenth
birthday. She shared what it was like to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge as a fourteen
year old girl, marching straight into a “sea of blue” uniforms, where she was beaten unconscious
by law enforcement officers. Fourteen. She was fourteen. When the marchers crossed that
bridge again, finally reaching Montgomery on March 25 under the protection of the Alabama
National Guard, which had been federalized by President Johnson, Lynda Blackmon was there
for every step. She was still not yet fifteen years old.
Listening to her stories, I could not help but wonder at her passion and her courage. As an
academic, I know the story of Bloody Sunday in Selma, but this was the first time I heard the
story come to life. Through Dr. Lowery’s words, I feel a new understanding of the vital role that
young people played in the Civil Rights Movement. As teachers, we are always pressed for time
so tend to focus on the well-known actors of history, like Dr. King and Rosa Parks. Yes, they
were dynamic leaders; however, the Foot Soldiers, especially the children, were just as integral
to the success of the movement.
My mind is swimming with thoughts of how I can refocus my teaching of the Civil Rights
Movement onto the important role that young people played. My middle school students are
often told they are “too young” to get involved and make a difference in the world. Introducing
them to the story of Lynda Blackmon Lowery will prove that to be wrong, and I am excited to
bring this back with me to my classroom.
After meeting Dr. Lowery, our Classrooms Without Borders group walked across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge, from Selma toward Montgomery. As we descended the Montgomery side of the
bridge, it struck me that I was stepping on the same pavement, holding the same iron railing, as
a fourteen year old Lynda Blackmon did in 1965. The Marching Down Freedom’s Road seminar
has given me opportunities to not only learn about the Civil Rights Movement in an academic
sense, but to be inspired by those who lived it. In other words, Dr. Lynda Blackmon Lowery
didn’t speak to my ears today. She spoke to my spirit.