VOTE
We have a new voter in the house! 18-year-old Olivia is officially registered. Hopefully, this election will be the first of many when she exercises her right and privilege as an American citizen.
That right is never to be taken for granted. I’m sharing here a powerful, moving 20-minute documentary about the fight for the vote in Alabama. The first frame reads: “The people in this film fought segregation firsthand. Most were teenagers.”
In 1961, about 15,000 Black Americans lived in Dallas County, Alabama. And only 130 had been able to register to vote. The documentary features interviews with adults who were teens in 1961, when they and others mobilized to protest the system. Their brave, collective actions culminated in the historic Selma to Montgomery marches and eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Sentences from the video I love: “We spoke up. We spoke out.” And “You don’t have to be extraordinary to change the world.”