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Speaking to Residents in Gees Bend
Most people are very familiar with Dr. King’s prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery and Birmingham, particularly in Alabama. You have heard of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965.
Most people are unaware that before then, Dr. King visited Gees Bend. He stood before a very eager crowd one night in February 1965 at my Grandmother Ella’s church, Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. During his speech, he told them that they mattered and that they were somebody. He told them that they were “as good as any white person.” (from NYTimes article)
Once I learned the history of the Voter Registration Drive in Gee’s Bend and how difficult it was to gain the right to vote, I understood later why my dad would be the first in line to vote on election days at our polling place.
The community where I grew up was small and there was one polling place. I would usually vote on my way to work. Once I got to the polling place, I would see my Dad’s signature usually as the first person who voted. It all made sense. What they had to go through to get the right to vote. I am going to go out on a limb and say I don’t think he missed an election until his dementia prevented him from voting. By then he was in his 80s.
Now that’s a legacy! Thanks Dad for setting such a great example!