Join the community on Monday, January 20, at 11:30am for an inspirational gathering with Civil Rights activist and life-long resident of Selma, Alabama, JoAnne Bland. Ms. Bland is the featured guest at the Community MLK Day Observance at Mosaic Church in Beavercreek.
As an eight-year-old, Ms. Bland and her sister accompanied their grandmother to a meeting of the local Voters League – the beginning of a lifetime of involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for voting rights. By the time she was eleven years old, she had been arrested and documented thirteen times, and in 1965, she participated in the infamous “Bloody Sunday” March in Selma.
In later life, Ms. Bland co-founded the Voting Rights Museum near the Edmund Pettus Bridge. After leaving the museum in 2007, she founded Journeys for the Soul, a Civil Rights touring agency headquartered in Alabama. Through her work and travels, Ms. Bland shares the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the story of the fight for voting rights with people of all ages from a first-person perspective.
Ms. Bland states, “Movements for social change are like jigsaw puzzles. Everyone is a piece. If your piece is missing, the picture is not complete.”
This event is FREE and open to the public.