Join WHY IT MATTERS series host, Tonya Scott-Williams, and series poet, Ashley M. Jones, as they chat with Dr. Karlyn Forner, author of WHY THE VOTE WASN’T ENOUGH FOR SELMA (Duke University Press, 2017). As Forner explained in an interview for BLACK PERSPECTIVES, the African American Intellectual History Society blog, her work “…looks at Selma as a place. It’s a framework that requires examining the struggle for political and economic empowerment side-by-side. With this long view, the vote is only a part of African American’s fight for what Selma movement veteran Joanne Bland calls the ‘good freedom’…that includes jobs, living wages, quality education, and sturdy housing, as well as self-sufficiency and respect. Securing voting rights was one of the hard-won successes of the civil rights movement, but it wasn’t enough to achieve the ‘good freedom’ that black Selmians were fighting for. Understanding that is central to understanding how this fight continues today.”
Author Interview, Civil Rights Movement, Alabama Humanities Alliance
