From Selma to Memphis: Where Legacy Becomes Living Movement

The Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965 ignited a national reckoning with racial injustice. On “Bloody Sunday,” hundreds of peaceful marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge while demanding voting rights. Their courage led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

That same moral courage resurfaced in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, when Black sanitation workers began striking for fair treatment following the tragic deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker. Holding signs reading “I AM A MAN,” they stood for dignity, just as Selma's Footsoldiers stood for freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to support them—and delivered his final speech there before his assassination.

These two cities—Selma and Memphis—are spiritually intertwined by sacrifice, resistance, and vision. That is why the MA’ & 9 MustardSeeds Foundation, rooted in Memphis, launched “Stones in Selma!”—to connect these sacred sites in a living movement of remembrance and rebirth.

Founded in honor of Thelma Brownlee, known as “The Singing Sharecropper,” and her nine children, the foundation embodies generational strength and moral leadership. Through projects like the House of Mtenzi Museum and civic engagement campaigns, the foundation carries forward a mission of economic restoration, cultural preservation, and spiritual awakening.

“Stones in Selma!” is the cornerstone of that mission—a catalytic gathering that honors Civil Rights Footsoldiers, reignites the spirit of Black Wall Street, and empowers a new generation to build with purpose, unity, and covenant.