**Linda Lowery:** If I've heard myself recorded, it seems like it's a
man talking. So don't make me sound so \<laughs\> here, okay?

\<CREW talk\>

A: Alright.

Q: Maybe we'd start if you would introduce yourself. Tell us a little
about yourself.

**Linda Lowery:** Well hi. I'm Linda Lowery. Uhm.. I am a native
Selmian, born and raised in Selma. Uh.. I currently work with the local
mental health center. I am a wife and a mother a very proud grandmother
of three. Uhm.. I have a new grandbaby. She's six months old.

Q: Congratulations.

**Linda Lowery:** Yeah.

Q: I just had my first. It's a great joy.

**Linda Lowery:** Alright.

Q: If you could take us back maybe to the early '60's and tell us what
you were doing and what was on your mind and going on in Selma.

**Linda Lowery:** Well uhm.. I first became involved in The Voting
Rights or The Civil Rights Movement at the age of 13. Our grandmother\--
it's a funny little story behind this. We used to watch a program on TV
called Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. And he had this fantastic German
Shepherd dog, King. King could do anything. Okay? Uhm.. my grandmother
had heard that King would be at Tabernacle Baptist Church. So she came
home and let us know that we were going to see King. Uh.. my siblings
and I and- went just knowing we were gonna see King from Sergeant
Preston of the Yukon, and- and we saw this man called Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Dr. King, when he came up there, was a disappointment because
we \<laughing\> were looking for this beautiful German Shepherd.
However, I remember when Dr. King started talking, the quietness that
came over the place. And it seems like not only myself but all the other
children was just, you know, hanging on his every word. And I knew then
that I wanted to do what Dr. King was talking about, which was live
free. And I- uh.. I- I know we asked our grandmother about living free,
because we were taught as children that we were free. We were free as
long as we owned our mind- that nobody could own us unless we let them
and we did that mentally. She taught us that. And so uh.. I knew that I
wanted this freedom that Dr. King was talking about. You know? Uhm.. and
that's how I first got involved in- in this movement. Also, a group of
kids came down from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee called
SNCC. And my husband was a part of that group of young men. He- he
joined that group of people. He's uh.. also a Selmian. He uhm..- and
this was somebody that I had decided at 12-years-old that I was gonna
marry. So, you know, I was able to join that group and follow him. Uhm..
in SNCC, they taught us about nonviolence. They were the first- that was
the first time that I can remember learning about Mao Tse-Tung and The
Little Red Book and the philosophy behind nonviolence. At the time I was
the youngest person in- in this organization at 13, and I was the go-fer
for everybody else. You know. Uhm.. "Get me this. Get me that, go-fer."
And uh.. \<laughs\> I- as I learned about things, uh.. I- I wanted to do
more. Uh.. it- it was just something that is- is started like a fire, a
little smoldering fire and it just build up into these big flames.

Q: Now had you experienced prejudice, racism? Were you aware that things
were unequal?

**Linda Lowery:** Not really. We lived kinda of a uhm..- a sheltered
life. I mean uhm.. it was like when you're born in Alabama, you were
born knowing that you are of one color, or one race, and then there's
another color, another race that think they're superior. You know, it-
it- it's like that you know that when you were born. But uhm.. our
family- we grew up in the GWC Homes in the Projects. And we were kinda
sheltered from just the hostility and- and so forth. I remember the
first time my father uhm.. ever decided to whip me. I was about
9-years-old and he took me to get some shoes- some white dress shoes.
There was something that I had to have these white dress shoes for. And
we were in the store. It was called Ballston Bargains and uhm.. this
lady kept asking if the- how the shoe fit, and I would say "okay", uh..
"Is it too little?" "Um-um" or "uh-hum" or whatever. And I remember them
telling my father when we were leaving the store that he needed to deal
with me. It was something about dealing with me then. And when we got
home, Daddy said uhm..- was saying that when you're around white people,
you are to say, "Yes Mam" and "No Mam" and "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" and so
forth. And my question to him then was why should I say it to them when
you don't have me really say it to you. Although we were not- we were
taught yes and no- you know, was an acceptable uhm.. answer to an adult
and it was a way to do it in a respectful way. We didn't say, "Yes Sir"
and "No Sir" and all that all the time. So- but that was my- like my
really only recollection of being, you know, of things really being
different. Uhm.. when we would be- my grandmother would bring us to
town- you know she's shopping or doing whatever she needed to do, she
would buy us like lunch and stuff and we- we would take it home and eat
it. But she would buy it from the back of the place. But, you know, it
never really like dawned on us that we could not go in this place or did
we really care? I know- I don't ever remember caring. \<laughs\> Nnn-
it's- a lotta people remember a lot of things but we- we- we were
sheltered a lot. I- I- I'm- I know things happened. And uhm.. we've- we
heard of things as children. But we never really- it never really like
impa- happened to us and impacted us really directly. So uhm.. on an
individual level, I can't.. really remember anything bad happening.

Q: But you were exposed very early to heroes- your grandmother and
Martin Luther King.

**Linda Lowery:** My grandmother was just a phenomenal country woman. I
did not know until\-- my mother died when I was 7 and I'm the oldest of
four. Uhm.. I did not\-- and my grandmother came to live with us then. I
did not know until I was about 14 that my grandmother could not read and
write. Uh.. and she instilled that in us, that an education was a way to
be anything we wanted to be. She used to say we could be a maid, like
her, or a mayor. And she would point to the mayor. Uhm.. but we needed
to be educated. And she would make us sit up and read to her. And we
didn't know- I didn't know that she could not read those words. You
know? Uhm.. she was a phenomenal woman. She gave us a love for self.
Uhm.. there's nothing wrong\-- I think you've met my sister, and I don't
think you can say there's anything wrong with our self-esteem. Uhm.. she
had us believe in self. And she had us spoil each other. My siblings and
I are very spoiled people. Uhm.. we had to praise each other. If one was
better in math than the others, and that one came home with an A, we had
to act like that was the best thing that ever happened. And that person
had to teach the rest of us, if we were lacking in something. So my
grandmother was a phenomenal woman, uhm.. in far as raising us.

\<CREW talk\>

Q: How many sisters?

**Linda Lowery:** Two.

Q: Two. How old are they?

**Linda Lowery:** \<clears throat\> \<whispers\> 38 and 37. 37 and 38
\<laughing\> years-old.

Q: Who would guess? Who would guess? How you doin'? Alright. If we could
just return. I love that you were bragging about your grandmother.

**Linda Lowery:** Oh yes. You know, I- I- in my job now, I see so pe-
many people with self-es- low self-esteem and so forth. And I just- uh..
it takes me back to my grandmother and the things that she taught and
the things that she made sure we had uh.. within ourselves. Uhm.. and
like I say, she was just phenomenal. I can't think of a better word to
describe her.

Q: And how did she prepare you for 'the big world', so to speak?

**Linda Lowery:** As I said- \<laughs\> sorry. She gave uhm..- she gave
us a sense of self and a sense of worth. Uhm.. she.. made sure and she
pushed education. Uhm.. she also\-- we wanted to follow her. She- she
was a spiritual person. Uhm.. when she first met Dr. King and first
started going to the mass meetings, you know, she took us and she- she
just made sure that we experienced life to me. Uhm.. and she whipped us
too. Oh. She was mean there. But nowaday it would be called uh- uhm..
child abuse. But uhm.. I appreciate all the whippings she ever gave me
because I think I needed them, although uhm..\-- but she- she just gave
us a foundation.

Q: Was the church important in your...?

**Linda Lowery:** Oh, the church was very important. Uhm.. \<laughs\> we
as children went to church just about every day. Oh, we were brought up
in Brown Chapel AME Church uh.. because my grandmother was Methodist. My
father was Baptist. So we went to the Methodist church in the morning,
the Baptist church in the afternoon. The people next door to us- we had
some neighbors that were that were 7-Day Adventists. We went to the
\<laughing\> 7-Day Adventist Church on Saturdays. Our summers were
filled with uh.. church vacation bible schools. We went to every
\<laughing\> vacation bible school, from the beginning of summer to the
end of summer. So uh.. church and religion was very important to her.

Q: When you saw Martin Luther King, did you realize that the movement
was going on? Did you get a sense of the courage and effort that people
were...?

**Linda Lowery:** I like- uh.. like I said earlier, I knew that what he
was saying was something I wanted to do. He was talking about freedom.
But I had always been taught that I was free. But it was some kind of
freedom that he was talking about that I knew I needed. I mean, it was
like a fire. You- he- when Dr. King spoke, you just sat, you was quiet.
You listened because it was something like you was absorbing in your
soul. You know, it was like he was lighting that fire and- and kindling
it. You know? He was- he was fantastic. Dr. King was charismatic and all
those other words- I wanna say phenomenal but that's a word only that I
think my grandmother deserves.

Q: Your school was segregated?

**Linda Lowery:** Yes it was.

Q: Tell us a little about school in those days.

**Linda Lowery:** I am a product of.. Knox Kindergarten, Clark
Elementary School and R.B. Hudson High School. Uh.. all of 'em were uh..
segregated. And for the most part, I'm happy that it was because I do
believe I got an education. Uhm.. I didn't know that they were saying I
was getting an inferior education, that the other schools or the white
schools had the better books or that the books I had was 10, 12 years
old, or older. I didn't know that at the time. But I do. I- I- I thank
God that I came up in a segregated uhm.. school system because once the
schools got integrated, it seemed like they started disintegrating.

Q: Were you aware of the teachers' strike in 1965?

**Linda Lowery:** Yeah. Uhm.. we were proud of our teachers. It- it- it
was amazing that our teachers couldn't vote. And our teachers were the
smartest people on earth. You- you gotta understand that. And they
couldn't even vote. So if the smartest people on earth couldn't vote and
you know the- the- the maids and the ditch diggers and the people that
were out there cooking for other people- you know, what chance did they
have? We were proud when our teachers finally banded together and
marched up to that court house and- a whole new respect. \<laughs\>

Q: We interviewed Reverend Reese and he told us about that.

**Linda Lowery:** Uh-hum.

Q: It must have been quite spectacular.

**Linda Lowery:** It was. Yeah, and- and we kids were standing\-- 'cuz
there's some pictures I think in the museum of the teachers marking and
then you see the crowds. You- uh.. people lined up on the streets, you
know, cheering them on and we were, "Oh, that's- that's Mr. Huggins"
and, you know, "That's Miss Parrish, that's Miss Moore." We were like
really proud to see them do this because it was just amazing that they
could- they did not have the right to vote. They were not voting, and
they were educated. You know? So when they stood up, they not only stood
up for themselves but they stood up for those people that were, you
know, that weren't educated, that were the cooks and the maids and the
ditch digger type people. So, you know, it was fantastic to see that.

Q: And were you attending some of the mass meetings we've heard about?

**Linda Lowery:** Oh, I used to attend every mass meeting I could get
to. Uhm.. they had a uh.. choir. You know, uhm.. the mass choir that we
used to sing in. Uhm.. I was a part of different, you know, youth
groups. And when SCLC- they had come to town- that's the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference- I became a part of that group. Uhm.. it
was so much knowledge and so many things out there that you needed to
know that, you know, it was kinda hard to absorb 'em all. And you had to
be in everything just to get that knowledge. You know? Like uh.. I- I
will reference this. Uhm.. a fire- uh.. the movement was like a fire
inside that just kept spreading and spreading and spreading and you
wanted to increase this fire. It was not a- a fire that you wanted to
put out. It was something that you wanted to increase and let burn.

Q: Did you have fear? You probably had heard about the bus boycott or
some of the other violence elsewhere.

**Linda Lowery:** We had, and we had..\-- I- I can't remember having any
fear before the Bloody Sunday uhm.. situation, not even the- when I- I
was in jail 11 times, not even those 11 times. I can't remember having
fear. Uhm.. we did it all together. You know, you were like never alone.
And uhm.. so like when you went to jail, you went to jail 'cuz everybody
else was in jail with ya all- your neighbors, your classmates. You know?
Uhm.. everybody was in jail with you and if you were not in jail, then
you should be afraid because you was out there by yourself. But, no, I-
I- I never really had any fear that I can remember.

Q: So there were many of you. Were you the exception or were there lots
of people kind of watching and getting engaged and involved?

**Linda Lowery:** There were a lot of people getting involved. I uhm..-
I was only one of a thousand and I- uh.. I don't remember ever feeling
or talking with anybody that said they felt like this was something for
show. It was like something that was needed. And I don't think, or feel,
that I was the only person that had a fire in them lit. You know? Uh.. I
think most of the people that were there, most of the students that were
going to jail, and I believe wholeheartedly the people that were on that
bridge on Bloody Sunday was there because they felt a fire or they were
driven to be there. Uh-hum.

Q: I gather that the fire of enthusiasm was fuelled at those mass
meetings. But what would happen there?

**Linda Lowery:** Oh, we would.. sing. I mean, singing was the thing.
You know? Uh.. that- that- that would- that would lift people's spirits
and get people into a- a- I don't know, a fighting mood, or- or, you
know, a moving on mood. And- and people would talk about different
things that had happened or was about to happen, and then we would
usually have a speaker and they would tell about the plans. It would be
Dr. King or Dr. Abernathy, Andrew Young, uh.. Reverend James Orange,
uh.. Reverend James Bevell. I mean, just different people, because Dr.
King wasn't- Reverend Reese. Uhm.. she's- she has- is now deceased, but
Ms. Foster, and just different people. You know? But the music would
start and that would start the momentum of the meeting.

Q: We were just in Marion and we saw Reverend Orange's monument.

**Linda Lowery:** Oh yes.

Q: Tell us a little about it.

**Linda Lowery:** Uh.. we called Reverend Orange a leader. Even back
then, in those days, he was a big leader. He was older than some of us
and, you know, he had this iron will and his iron fist and you sat down
and you listened. Uhm.. Reverend Orange and- and- from SCLC, and- and
the SNCC people taught the children of Selma to be disciplined. We were
a very disciplined group of people back then. When I say disciplined,
it's like you wanted to learn, you wanted to hear. You knew that what
you were going to do would make a difference. And it was something that
you wanted to do. Uhm.. they- like I said, they were teaching
non-violence and.. it's hard for somebody to come up and slap you on the
left cheek and you turn the right cheek. You know? Uhm.. but it was
something that\... I can't just tell you what they said or how they said
it. But it was something that made even the roughest person stop, listen
to and follow. That's why I say we were disciplined. It was like God had
thrown this blanket over us. \<laughs\> You know? And we.. were going to
do what was said- you know, what they told us to do. It was- I can't
explain it. It was just different and it was a good part of my life. You
know? Somebody asked me once, "Were you brainwashed?", and I say, "I
don't think so." You know, uh.. reading and learning Mao's uhm..
non-violent tactics- and they even got- uh.. sent us to different parts
of the bible. They even taught, you know, out of the bible and I mean it
was just something you wanted to do.

Q: How about the events leading up to Bloody Sunday? You knew that was
coming. Did you do some of the trainings at First Baptist?

**Linda Lowery:** I was in as a part of the trainings- not particularly
doing them. Uhm.. I was amazed that we were not taught uhm..- or it
wasn't stressed that we should- on ways of how to protect ourselves, at
that particular time. And it seems like everybody\-- and I know we had
been taught different ways to protect yourself- you know, how to hold
your head, how to cover your- in defensive uh.. measures. But uhm.. it's
like on Bloody Sunday, everybody forgot that because I know I- I- I
forgot it. I even forgot uh.. non-violence on Bloody Sunday. But that's
a whole different story. Uhm.. I can't remember any specific things.
Nobody thought Bloody Sunday would be bloody Sunday. Uhm.. I know the
feeling I had along with other- some others- was that we would leave the
church, march to our des- you know, destig- uh.. designated area. Uhm..
if we were not allowed to proceed and if we weren't arrested, we would
kneel and pray, turn around and go back to the church. I mean that was
normally the order of things. And I don't think anybody thought that
Bloody Sunday would actually be bloody Sunday.

Q: So how did you prepare the night before let's say? What was on your
mind and what were you doing to get ready?

**Linda Lowery:** The- the night before, we uhm..\-- I remember uhm..
our student leader at that time was Reverend James Webb. And we had
talked about uhm.. sh- a show of force going across the bridge. You
know? And we would walk to the first leg and the first leg would- would
have been the turnaround point for people that were not going to
Montgomery, all the way. It would have been Craig Field- it was Craig
Air Force Base at the time. And we were supposed to walk and turn
around. Uhm.. that's why I say they- nobody said anything. I- I don't
think people thought that there would- there would be violence, on that
nature because nobody really dealt with the violent aspect of it the
night that I- the night before, that I could remember. My father had
uhm..\-- by this time my grandmother had uh.. moved to Union Town,
Alabama, to Perry County. Uhm.. my father had told us that we could not
go from Selma to Montgomery. And uh.. I'm not- uh.. even as a child, I
was not very uh.. athletic. I didn't wanna walk from \<laughing\> Selma
to Montgomery- had no plans on doing it. Uhm.. but uhm.. we were told we
couldn't do it. I remember the night before, it was something about the
clothes I needed to wear- didn't know if it was gonna be hot or cold,
you know, really. So- didn't know if we would be arrested. So I got
dressed for jail. You know? In case I had to go. Uhm.. and I remember
having on these pants, this dress on top of the pants, this sweater and
this coat. \<laughs\> And I had this multi colored coat that uhm.. when
my grandmother bought it, she told me it was uh.. the Coat of Many
Colors from the Bible. \<laughs\> And that- to make me like it 'cuz it
was really a ugly coat. \<laughs\> But uh.. that kinda made me like the
coat. And I had finally grown into this coat. You know, 'cuz they bought
things like two sizes too big for you. So I had on my multi-colored
coat. And, you know, it was- it was like fun from the uhm..- at the
church before we marched because we had this rally and all these, you
know, speeches that had everybody ready to do and stuff. So.

Q: Who was speaking? What were they saying about that?

**Linda Lowery:** Uhm.. Reverend Orange spoke, uhm.. Reverend Reese
spoke. These are people I remember. Uhm.. Miss Boynton. I remember her.
There was a lady named Miss Lilly Brown from Birmingham. She was with
the uh.. SCLC. I remember her. Uhm.. I can't remember everybody that was
up there speaking but it was like.. this was something that we were
going to do. Uhm.. you had to go to Montgomery to let Wallace know that
we weren't gonna take it any more, you know kind of thing. Uhm.. but
like I said, you know, the old people was over there and the children
was over here and I was with the children and it was just something to
do, to defy everything. You know? \<laughs\>

Q: So as you left Brown's Chapel, you weren't walking with your sisters
at the time.

**Linda Lowery:** No, my- my- my sister, the brat, whom I love dearly,
uhm.. she was a little kid, you know, a bratty little kid and she wanted
to be with other little bratty kids her age- thank you Jesus- \<laughs\>
and I wanted to be with, you know, my peers. So uhm.. I was with a- a
group of people led by.. Reverend James Webb. Uhm.. so I was up toward
the front, the very front of the line of the march. And she had gotten
separated from me, you know, with her kids and with her group of peers
and they kept going back and back and back, till they were further back
behind me. But it was so many people there, so you know everything was
gonna be all right. You know? Uhm.. there wasn't anything to be afraid
of and I knew who she was with. So.

Q: Could you see the front lines? Could you see Reverend Reese and did
you kind of line up with Martin Luther King and with everyone at the
front?

**Linda Lowery:** At the- on- on Bloody Sunday, Dr. King was not there.

Q: That's right.

**Linda Lowery:** Uhm.. and yes, we were in, and uhm\... we were about
the 30^th^ row from the front. Uhm.. we were very close up front because
Reverend Webb was one of uhm.. SCLC lieutenants- junior lieutenants- and
we were very close up front. Uhm.. too close now. \<laughs\>

Q: So as you got to the crest- we always hear about that sea of blue.
Could you describe your impressions as you came and saw what was waiting
for you?

**Linda Lowery:** When we got to the top of- of- of the bridge, uhm.. I
think that's when I started getting nervous 'cuz I had- we've always
been turned around and uh.., you know, in marching either turned around
or- or marched on buses to go to jail. I didn't see the buses but I saw
the- the highway was just full of- of uh.. State Troopers. And then
there were men on horseback behind them, the State Troopers. And on the
sides of the road, there were different white people sitting on their
cars with their Confederate flags and it was more than the normal group
of whites that would observe you, you know, when you was walking. Uhm..
it still- it seemed like there were things out of place, but it still
wasn't scary at the time because it was so many of us. It started
getting scary when uhm.. the State Troopers started putting on the gas
masks. Uh.. and- because it was something it- we didn't know what it
was. To me, I had only seen like a gas mask on the Outer Limits TV show-
I'm dating myself here. But uhm..- and it was something like from outer
space, you know. And it was kinda scary. And when they said that we had
three minutes to disperse and go back to our church because we were an
illegal march, uhm.. we started going down on our knees because that was
the norm of things. You prayed and you got up and you turned around and
you went back, or whatever. And.. I remember being on my knees and I
heard these pops- pop, pop, pop. And I didn't know what they were and
then all of a sudden there was this teargas. There was this gas burning
my lungs and my eyes and I- I started getting kinda- I was scared but
that's not the word I wanna use right now. But for a lack of a better
word, I started getting scared. Uhm.. I felt something grab the front of
my lapel, the front of my coat, and- and the back of my collar and it
was pulling me backwards. I bit that hand that was on the front of me
and uhm.. I remember hearing, 'nigger'. And that's when I got hit over
my eye. I had to get eights stitches here. Uhm.. I remember being drug
backwards and hit. I- I was hit twice, uh.. over my eye or in my face.
And then I was pushed. And when I was pushed forward, I was hit again
and this time in my head. I remember getting up and running and I was
running into the teargas and this person was running and hitting me.
This is on the uhm.. Eyes of the Prize video. They show a young girl
running into- uhm.. into this cloud of teargas and that just happens to
be me. I know it happens to be me because the FBI had photographs of it
and uhm.. I later had to testify at a Grand Jury. Uhm.. then I don't
remember anything. When I woke up, I was on the back of a stretcher.
Uhm.. they were putting me in the back of a hearse. At the time we
didn't have ambulances and they had a- a hearse. And people were still
running back across the bridge. And I told them I wasn't dead and I
started running. And.. I got back across the bridge. When I got back
across the bridge, the first thing I saw was my sister, Joanne, and she
was just limp. These people were carrying her and they put her in the
back of this car. And I thought she was dead. And I ran over there and-
and they said she had just fainted. And I remember hitting her in her
face, trying to wake her up. And when she woke up, she looked at me and
she just started screaming. And I thought somebody was behind me then,
maybe trying to hit me- that's what she was screaming at. And I grabbed
her hand and we started running. When we got back to the G- GWC Homes,
we could not get uh.. into Brown Chapel because they were- th- there
were State Troopers and sheriff's deputies and they had it like blocked
off and you couldn't- they weren't letting you in. We ran. So we ran
past our house to First Baptist Church. At that time, when we got to
First Baptist Church, we were able to get in and that's when somebody
told me I was bleeding. Uhm.. I didn't know I was bleeding but I was- I-
I had, you know, a cut over my head, over my eye. I had a cut- in fact,
I still have a knot in the back of my head from being beaten. Uhm.. the-
the knot took 19 stitches. And my eye took 8 stitches. Uhm.. and I later
found out that that's what my sister was crying about or screaming at
when she was in the car. It was- you know, my blood- uh.. I was
bleeding. I did not know I was bleeding. I did not feel like I was
bleeding. I don't even remember feeling the pain of being hit. I- I
remember being hit. You know. And that- that's about it. \<clears
throat\> Uhm.. after they took me then to Good Samaritan Hospital and I
remember them shaving the back of my head. Oh that hurt because I don't
think my hair has really ever \<laughing\> grown back right. But I
remember them doing that and- and I had this big bandage and, you know,
my head shaven and I had a big bandage in the back. And, oh, I was a
shero. \<laughs\> And my father didn't fuss. You know, I thought we- we
were gonna get fussed at. But I got the sympathy of my family. I
remember then my determination to walk from Selma to Montgomery. And
uhm.. my- my daddy said I couldn't go, at first, because, you know, I
was- I was only 14 at the time and he- he, you know, said I couldn't go
and I got several females- uh.. Miss Foster and Miss Boynton and- and
uh.. Ms. Lilly Brown and uh..- I can't think of Mary's last name. But
they were all responsible adults and they told my father they would
watch me. So he finally relented and said I could go. And uhm.. two
weeks later, on March 21^st^, I was packed with clean underclothes and
some extra food and some extra, you know, top clothing. I was packed
ready to walk from Selma to Montgomery. That first night we- we stopped
and camped. And- and- and see, let me tell you, it drizzled rain. If it
wasn't raining, it was misty and it- that first night it was like.. the
camp was really nice 'cuz we sang songs and people told stories and, you
know, it was just a little motivational thing. That morning that I woke
up and I came out of the tent, and it was very misty. And the Alabama
National Guard had been federalized to protect us on this walk. And for
some reason, I focused in on these three guardsmen, standing by their
Jeeps. They had their guns. The butt of their guns was like at their
waist and they were holding these guns up and they had those knives, the
bayonet's affixed to the guns. They had on these- these- these green
rain ponchos and these green helmets. And for some reason when I saw
them- and there were hundreds of troops- when I saw these three people,
I felt that they were there, just to kill me. This was my 15^th^
birthday. I have never in my life been as frightened as I was on that
day. I realized that those people that were there with those guns were
the same people that had been beating me on that bridge, and they were
there then to finish the job of killing me. I didn't think of anybody
else but Linda. Linda didn't want anybody to have any freedom. I didn't
care uh.. that morning if anybody ever voted. All I wanted to do was get
back to the GWC Homes, Apartment 138-C, to my daddy, A.C. Blackman, 'cuz
I knew he was gonna protect me. That morning, the march started an hour-
over an hour late. And I thank God that it did because some people were
saying, "Send her back home." And some people thought it was- they would
need to deal with my fear and they did. That morning, a lotta people
said a lotta things. I remember one person and one thing that he said.
There was a guy named Jim Leaderer \[ph?\]. Jim was a white guy with one
leg. He walked on crutches all the way from Selma to Montgomery. He
carried a flag sometime and I am in some of the pictures with him now.
But Jim said, before he'd let anything happen to me, he would lay down
and die. Those words and- and the way he said it, penetrated that fear
in my mind, and I was able then to walk from Selma to Montgomery. But I
don't think I would have done it if it had of been- if it hadn't have
been for him.

\<TAPE CHANGE\>

\<CREW talk\>

**Tape 50 starts here**

**Linda Lowery:** And after he said that- and- and I can't tell you how
he said it. But the fact that this man would die for me, and- and he
didn't even know my name, kinda thing. You know? He was there. He would
die for me. That made me go all the way from Selma to Montgomery. I am
happy to say, I turned 15 years-old on the second day of that march and
I am the youngest person to have walked from Selma to Montgomery.

Q: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.

**Linda Lowery:** Yes. \<laughs\>

Q: The weather was awful and it was cold and there were lots of
deprivations but I'll bet your spirits were good.

**Linda Lowery:** We- it was. People let us- uh.. people let us bathe
and wash up and- and change clothes, you know, along the route in their-
in their homes. And we were able to sit on the back of the truck and-
and ride, you know, a couple of miles. But uhm.. for the most part, the
determination- it was spelled with this gigantic D that everybody had.
You know? I mean, that uh.. everybody was just engulfed in this big D
for determination. It was really nice.

Q: Do you remember, did you all walk in a group, or spread out, hold
hands?

**Linda Lowery:** We, for the most part, walked in a group. Uhm.. the
children of the younger people were like in their group and the older
people in theirs. Uhm.. but I had some strict uhm.. \<laughs\>
gatekeepers. So I was basically between the two but mostly with the
older people. I have always felt that uhm.. I was put here for some type
of service and I just love elderly people. So, you know, I- I did the
running for the water, or the getting them, you know, things. I was
their go-fer too, but that was alright.

Q: Maybe we should move ahead to St. Jude that evening. Do you remember
arriving there at St. Jude?

**Linda Lowery:** Yeah, and uhm.. when we arrived at St. Jude, uhm..
this lady, Miss Gladys, she stayed four houses from the school. She took
uhm.. me to her house so that I could bathe, change clothes. And she-
she had a wringer type washing machine, I'll never forget it, so we
could wash, you know, uhm.. my clothes- when we got back over, and she
fed- fed me. When we got back over to St. Jude, it was like everybody in
the world was there. \<laughs\> It was- oh it was- it was like you'd
walk around and you had your eyes open and your mouth open because you
was so astonished at everything. Uhm.. then I saw like Sammy Davis Jr.
and Leslie Uggams and uh.. people that, you know, you just saw on TV
uh.. or you heard about in the movies. And there was this- this guy
named Marlon Brando. And Marlon Brando was this uh..- he was- I was in
love with him. \<laughs\> And I got to actually see him- you know?-
uhm.. and hear him. And when he passed by, I got to touch him. Oh that
was \<laughs\> fantastic. But it was like a big- just a big party. You
know? Uhm.. everybody was there. They were just- and Dick Gregory. And
Dick Gregory, I had bought- the first book I ever bought with my own-
own money was Dick Gregory, Sitting on the Back of the Bus. And I had
that book, I had it with me, and he signed it. \<laughs\> You know. Oh,
I still have my book. \<laughs\> That's the first book I ever bought.
Not a bible, they were given. This was something that I had earned the
money and, you know, bought. It was fantastic.

Q: So everybody realized that you were going to make your goal. You were
going to get to Montgomery that night.

**Linda Lowery:** Yeah.

Q: So this was more or less a celebration already.

**Linda Lowery:** It was. It- it- it was like, "I am here and I'm gonna
tell Wallace, I ain't gonna take it no more." Let Wallace know that I am
here 'cuz he tried to stop me. And that- that was- that was really why
I- I- I just had to go to Montgomery, because that was the first time
that I had ever really been stopped. You know? Uhm.. and my grandmother
used to uhm.. teach us, you- you're not asking anybody for anything. You
don't care if they close the door. You'll be able to open that door. You
know? So uhm.. I didn't care if Wallace closed that door and said on
Bloody Sunday we could not go. What I cared about is the way he closed
it. And I wanted him to see my shaved head and I wanted him to see my
face, 'cuz it was still swollen and I still had bandages on it. You
know? I wanted him to see what he did and how he did it, and let him
know he wasn't gonna do that no more to me.

Q: So you're leaving St. Jude that early morning. Were you all singing
that final day?

**Linda Lowery:** It was so many people going to uh..- leaving St. Jude.
The- the march was so big. When I got to the capital, I was about eight
blocks away in the crowd. That's how big the crowd was. And then there
were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people behind me. And we all
had a- we were all in a singing mood. I don't think any- any two blocks
of people sang- were signing the same song, at the same time. \<laughs\>
But we were all singing and we were\-- I- I can remember seeing Dr. King
as being just a little dot up there, you know, speaking. You- uh.. I
really could not see him. WE- it was like \<sighs\> The Million Man
March. It was a lot of people there.

Q: So I assume that you all squeezed up toward the capital.

**Linda Lowery:** We were pas- we were- we were walking.. 8 to 10
abreast. And like I said, I was about 8 blocks from the capital.

Q: And what did Martin say that day?

**Linda Lowery:** Who could hear? \<laughs\> If I tried to tell you
anything he would say, oh I would- that would be something that would be
totally a lie to you and I'm not lying. Uhm.. I can't remember what he
said uh.. because I could not hear. I was- I was in the crowd but so far
away. And you know, as we were marching, people would come from the
sidelines, from the streets, and just, you know, get in. So, you know,
your line got back farther and farther. But I remember leaving St. Jude.
We were that far from the front. There were- there were thousands and
thousands of people.

Q: Were there hecklers that day? Was there any opposition or did you all
just flow in one unified...?

**Linda Lowery:** There were people sitting on the sidelines with their
uhm.. Confederate flags and their racial slurs. Uhm.. and I don't
remember anybody in the smaller- you know, where I could see, either in
front of me or behind me, uhm.. leaving out of the lines going to
confront anybody. It was like we- we are here and you can't do anything
about it so you might as well accept it kinda thing. Because that- I
think that was the attitude that\-- I- I know that was the attitude that
I had. "I am here." You know. \<laughs\> "You won't be beating me again.
You might as well accept it. I'm not going anywhere." You know- kind of
attitude. And- and that- I think that was like the attitude among a lot
of people.

Q: Did you cry? Were you enthusiastic? Were you contemplative? Your
spirits were soaring.

**Linda Lowery:** When- when- when I got to St. Jude the night before, I
was crying and uh.., you know, uh.. it was like I had finally gotten
there, I had finally made it. And all that fear, all that pain, disgust,
you know, the anger that had driven me there uhm.. that stemmed from
Bloody Sunday was- was finally released. I was in Montgomery. You know?
I- I had made- I had did it. I would be able to show. And I think that's
how I ended up at Miss Gladys's house because uhm.., you know, I was-
like I say, I was the youngest person there and.. I just could not stop
crying. I remember when we got to St. Jude it was like- I fell down on
the ground and- and- and just cried and cried and cried. Uhm.. and they
were saying like this child is hungry and she needs a bath. And, you
know. But uh.. it- it was like all of it, I was letting all of it out
then. Uhm.. because when I got back to St. Jude that night, I- I just
remember the- the awesomeness of just being there with all these people
and just being in it and it- it was just fantastic. So. By the time I
marched, you know, half of that anticipation that was mixed with that
fear or anxiety, uh.. you know, that something might happen to me on-
that I'd had on the walk, uhm.. it wasn't there and I was just able to
really have fun and enjoy and, you know, like I was there with no fear.
You know? I had- I had learned too to respect fear. So uhm.. it was like
I respected fear because of the fear I felt, you know, on the march.
Uh.. but uhm.. when you respect something, you know how to embrace it.
So I think I was able to embrace the fear and put it in a part of me
where, you know, I- I wasn't afraid. I was there. I had arrived. You
know, kinda thing.

Q: You now are becoming a hero. When you returned back to Selma, were
you greeted with enthusiasm?

**Linda Lowery:** When we returned back to Selma, we returned under a
cloud of uhm.. of sadness, 'cuz Miss uh.. Louisio \[ph?\] had been
killed that night. And.. I- uh.. I didn't return jubilant. Uh.. the-
what I had accomplished. And what I had accomplished by going from Selma
to Montgomery was basically for me. Uhm.. in my mind, uh.. it was- I had
to go because I was told I couldn't go and I had to prove you wrong,
meaning Wallace wrong. Uhm.. I had learned a lot of things in those four
days and one of 'em was the fear- how to respect and embrace it. Uhm.. I
had learned also that I was not alone, that there were a lot of people
like Marlon Brando that really cared about what happened to me. Linda
Blackman and black people in Selma, Alabama. You know? And I had learned
a- a lot of things and it was like I had to put the things I learned
into perspective, you know, to be able to deal with them. So then I
learned about Mrs. Louisio's death and what could have happened to me or
anybody else. And, you know, other people coming from- back from
Montgomery. It wasn't uhm..- it wasn't a feeling that I really can think
I should have expected- a jubilant feeling. It was- it was under a
cloud. And I know I thought about the lady had children and what was her
children going to do? Uh.. growing up without a mother, that was my
first thought. My second thought was it could have been me or somebody
else, you know, uhm.. that I knew or whatever.

Q: So how about today? You must feel a great sense of pride. I can feel
it from here.

**Linda Lowery:** At the time uhm.. we never- I never did anything for
any kind of recognition or- or\-- it was so many of us out there doing
it that, you know, it wasn't like uhm..- it was like we were doing this
together. It wasn't a me or a I thing. It was a us and a we thing. Uhm..
today, being able to know- just knowing that I was a part of a change,
that I have been able to live through history twice in Selma, Alabama.
Uhm.. knowing that during Black History Month, my children and my
grandchildren in New York can tell about honest sheroes and heroes that
they know, that they have met, that they have heard their stories. Now
that brings a sense of pride like no other. Uhm.. but I never, during
that time, uhm.. did anything for any recognition or thought that shero
or hero would ever be used, you know, uh.. with- along with my name.
Uhm.. my sister says uh.. all the time, "I want you to meet my shero"
when she's introducing me to people. Uhm.. and my grandkids say I'm a
shero. That- that- that seem kinda nice. You know?

Q: That's kind of nice. How about this next generation? Are they as
engaged and inspired as you were?

**Linda Lowery:** We have uhm..- we have a generation that is coming up
uhm.. with their eyes, their ears, their hearts and their minds that are
open. Uhm.. and- and they are\-- we have some children in a- in a group
called 21^st^ Century Youth Leadership uh.. organization that I wanna be
like when I grow up. \<laughs\> You know what I mean? They are some
fantastic- uh.. they are born leaders. And I think that there will be
another Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I think that person will come out
of this 21^st^ Century Youth and Leadership organization. Uhm.. it might
even be a female- you know, not necessarily a male. But I think we have
some fantastic leaders, not only here in Selma and not only with uhm..
that organization, but I think children are some of the- some of the
people that are teaching now are people from my generation and, you
know, it's like a fire being rekindled.

Q: You must be asked often to speak to youngsters. What do you say to
them?

**Linda Lowery:** Uhm.. now I say a lot about uhm.. self-esteem and
vision and believing in yourself because you have that power within you.
Uhm.. I push education like my grandmother did. Uhm.. and I- I- I- I
just like to push self-awareness- be aware of self. And if you are aware
of self, you can respect and love self. If you respect and love self,
you can become passionate about self and other things. If you become
passionate about other things, you will see the overall picture and be
ready to fight, speak up, do whatever is necessary in a positive sort of
way to get that picture printed, painted, made. You know? So.

Q: You know we're working on this film. It's going to be shown out in
Whitehall, in the new museum. Visitors \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_. What do you
think we should include in the film? What should be put before the
people who might not know this story?

**Linda Lowery:** Uhm. The Selma Movement.. was a children's movement.
Uhm.. and that story would show that children have a voice. Children
need to be listened to. Uhm.. and you might hear a lot of things that
you might not can see with the naked eye. Uhm.. I want- I would like
that story to show the- the passion that we had for what we were doing
at the time. Not only that it was something that was needed. Uhm.. but
how children actually changed the face of America, how children actually
gave people the right to vote and the children were not able to vote
themselves. How love and respect for your fellow man uh.. caused many
people to give up their lives. Uhm.. how you can fight for a belief and
actually win.

Q: Well you're a winner and we're very grateful. Is there anything else
you'd like to add?

**Linda Lowery:** Oh no. I think we've covered it.

Q: You've been very good to us.

**Linda Lowery:** Okay.

Q: We've enjoyed- your sister would be proud.

\<CREW talk\>

\#### End of Tape A24 \####