Abstract: Dr King's Youngest Freedom Fighter

    Sheyann was eight years old and Rachel West, her best friend, was nine when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. arrived in Selma, Alabama, on January 2, 1965. He came to organize non-violent demonstrations against discriminatory voting laws. Selma, Lord, Selma is their firsthand account of the events from that turbulent winter of 1965--events that changed not only the lives of these two little girls but the lives of all Alabamans and all Americans.

    Arianna Donham, a middle school student, last year (2019) said it best for all young Americans in a video review:

    "I attend Gililland Middle School in Tempe, AZ and I watched this film in social studies and it made me cry a little. The actors did a great job pulling together this film to recreate the events of the Selma March. It's a very inspiring film and this goes to show that every American citizen should have the same rights as everyone else no matter what your race is and that's why this film is inspiring to me and my fellow classmates. Shout out to Linda Milke (my social studies teacher) for showing my class this film. Everyone who reads this post should go watch it and you'll see how great it is."

    This was Disney's third film (and last) about historical events of African American students (based on true stories) who lived during the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s. This web site contains the stories and the videos of this third Disney film (Volume 12)"

    This "Something to Talk About" program will close the 2018 Black History Month Celebration at North Campus. The program will last about 55 minutes with video clips from the movie, actual newsreel video from 1960, and very important interviews of the actual persons involved.

    Cheyann Webb-Christburg, now 63, Biography and Current Speaker Contact Information handout will be available for the audience

"So we gather at the church on that Sunday [March 21}, it was more than a march to dramatize our desire to vote. It meant that we would get out in the sunshine and let everyone know that we were Americans, too; that we were southerners, too; and that we were Alabamans and citizens of Selma, too.

So all this was coming about---this right to be free from fear---in Selma and it was coming about because of the courage of poor, ordinary black people who knew the time was here

I remember on that Sunday that there were thousands of people gathered around the church. But from all those people remember they got me and Rachel and we sang a song......And later, before we started, a photographer took a picture of me and Rachel sitting on Dr. King's lap.

What I remember so much about that day was the happiness of the people. I had never seen them like that before... the people just seemed like something had been lifted from their shoulders. They were proud, but it was a pride that that was dignified.

   The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination
in voting.
   It was signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections.
    Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act secured the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South.
   According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.[9

   Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013), is a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal preclearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and Section 4(b), which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subjected to preclearance based on their histories of discrimination in voting.

   On June 25, 2013, the Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that Section 4(b) is unconstitutional because the coverage formula is based on data over 40 years old, making it no longer responsive to current needs and therefore an impermissible burden on the constitutional principles of federalism and equal sovereignty of the states. The Court did not strike down Section 5, but without Section 4(b), no jurisdiction will be subject to Section 5 preclearance unless Congress enacts a new coverage formula.

   Some critics have said that the ruling has made it easier for state officials to make it harder for Black and other racio-ethnic minority voters to vote. Research shows that preclearance led to increases in minority congressional representation and increases in minority turnout. Five years after the ruling, nearly 1,000 polling places had been closed in the U.S., with many of the closed polling places in predominantly African-American counties. Research shows that the changing of voter locations and reduction in voting locations can reduce voter turnout. There were also cuts to early voting, purges of voter rolls and imposition of strict voter ID laws. Virtually all restrictions on voting subsequent to the ruling were by Republicans.