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Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — “Selma: 55 Years Later” will be a special community event to review and commemorate many aspects of the American civil rights movement at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St., downtown.

Joanne Bland, co-founder and former director of the National Civil Rights Museum in Selma, Ala., will be the main presenter. She was the youngest person to have been jailed during any civil rights demonstration during that period.

On “Bloody Sunday” March 7, 1965, she witnessed fellow activists being beaten by the police and Alabama state troopers.

“After Selma” is a documentary film about the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery. This film, along with “Bloody Sunday,” voting rights history and voter repression, will be the evening’s focus.

The documentary, produced by Loki Mulholland in 2019, features Carol Anderson, author of the book “White Rage,” and Bland, who in 1965 at age 11, walked across the Edmond Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday.”

After the film, Bland will speak about her experiences and what has happened with voting rights since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The program will end with a discussion of voting rights and the purging of voters in Ohio.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society, with Sojourn To The Past and the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee, will present the evening of education and reflection.

This event is free to the public, and light refreshments will be provided. Parking is available in the public lot on the west side of the building and on the street. For more information, call 330-743-2589 or visit online at mahoninghistory.org/events.

Additional partnerships will be provided by Baptist Pastors Council of Youngstown, Community Mobilization Coalition, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Alumnae Chapter, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, League of Women Voters, Links Inc. ,Youngstown Chapter; Mahoning Valley Association of Churches, Nonviolence Week Committee, Unitarian Universalist Church, Youngstown Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Youngstown Warren Black Caucus.

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