We are looking forward to joining old friends and meeting new Monday June 6th in Selma Alabama for a dynamic afternoon of sharing stories, photos and experiences from the Wilcox County Voting Rights struggle. This presentation is suitable for tourists, seniors, high school and older students and the general public. Please spread the word and bring your friends. Thank you, Park Ranger Theresa Hall for your warm invitation to add to the history of Selma and Wilcox.
Montgomery, AL 36130
Monday June 6 th 2-3:00 PM
The National Park Service, Selma Interpretive Center sponsors Maria Gitin at the Performing Arts Center
1000 Selma Ave., Selma, AL 36701 www.thisbrightlightofours.com
Please join us for this engaging, interactive afternoon with Bay Area Civil Rights Veterans who worked in and around Selma, AL during the 1965 Voting Rights Movement. Saturday May 21st 2-4 PM at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. 
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Voices of the 1965 Voting Rights Fight
As we observe the 50th anniversary year of the Selma voting rights struggle, the March to Montgomery, and passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Bay Area civil rights veterans share their experiences of the historic African American-led struggle. If you liked the film “Selma,” you will enjoy hearing more about the role of youth during this pivotal period of the Civil Rights Movement.
Program features:
• Personal stories from the front lines in Alabama in 1965
• Singing Civil Rights songs led by renowned Freedom Singer, Wazir Peacock
• Book signing by three authors: Maria Gitin, Charles Bonner and Bruce Hartford
• Wazir Peacock Video (optional still under discussion)
• Historic slide show
• Q & A and discussion
Moderator and Panelist: Bruce Hartford, civil rights activist and historian is author of “The Selma Voting Rights Struggle & the March to Montgomery” Hartford is webspinner for the Civil Rights Veterans at http://www.crmvet.org. He worked on voter-registration and direct-action campaigns with CORE and SCLC 1963-1967 in California, Alabama & Mississippi. In 1965 he worked in Selma during Bloody Sunday, and walked on the March to Montgomery with Dr. King.
Panelist and song leader: Willie B. Wazir Peacock, highly regarded singer of civil rights songs, is featured in the new video, Stand for Freedom: The Life & Times of Willie B. Wazir Peacock. Native of Mississippi, Peacock was an early member of Student Non-Violent Organizing Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was a SNCC field secretary organizing African Americans voting rights activities in Mississippi and Alabama from 1960-66. He was both participant and witness to many of the most dangerous and violent campaigns of the civil rights movement.
Panelist: Charles A. Bonner, civil rights attorney, is a Selma native and author of The Tip of the Arrow, the Selma Student Movement: a Study in Leadership. Bonner was a leader in Selma high school and college student movement, and was beaten and arrested numerous times for voting rights activities. He was on the bridge on Bloody Sunday and marched to Montgomery, and then helped train white kids working with both SCLC and SNCC during the summer of 1965.
Panelist: Maria Gitin, civil rights veteran and author of This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight, left San Francisco State College to spend the summer of 1965 working with SCLC and SNCC in rural Wilcox County, Alabama, after the March to Montgomery. She canvassed for voters, was chased by the KKK, and arrested. Four decades later she gathered the memories of her co-workers, including Bonner, in a moving memoir of teenage civil rights action. Read about Maria Gitin and her civil rights work: www.thisbrightlightofours.com
Just back from a whirlwind tour of Atlanta GA and Mobile AL where students, teachers and other civil rights veterans gave warm reception to me and “This Bright Light of Ours.” We engaged in lively dialog about the need to bring back national civil discourse and restore voting rights in states where they have been lost. I am honored to carry not only my own stories but those of dozens of African American grassroots heroes to encourage this conversation.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/20141206/activist-to-deliver-voting-rights-talk-in-aptos
Sheryl Threadgill-Matthews brings BAMA kids to meet author Maria Gitin
Save the date for talks in Seattle, Monterey and Palo Alto. Check back for details in a few weeks.
January 13, 2015: Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle WA
7 PM This Bright Light of Ours – Author Book signing event http://www.elliottbaybook.com/
January 14, 2015: Open Windows School, Bellevue WA – MLK student assembly speaker
January 15, 2015: MLK Seattle Celebration 33rd Anniversary, King County, Seattle WA
The Voting Rights Fight, Keynote speaker for community celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. For more information:http://www.mlkseattle.org/
January 22, 2015: YWCA Monterey County
This Bright Light of Ours: Presentation, reading and book signing. Details forthcoming.
January 28, 2015: Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
This Bright Light of Ours: Presentation, reading and book signing Details forthcoming.
Temple Beth El Book Launch Celebration
Praise for Maria Gitin Presentations
Thank you! thank you! Thank you! Your contribution to the “Voice of Conscience: Civil Rights, Post-Civil Rights and the Future Freedom Struggle” was the highlight. You are a remarkable friend and colleague. As Director of the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt and on behalf of the program committee we thank you. – Victor D Anderson, Vanderbilt University
I learned a good bit from your presentation. I referenced you in the final chapter of” A Child Shall Lead Them.” Your book will be a valuable resource, and will be one I will want to use in my King course. – Rufus Burrow Indiana Professor of Christian Thought and Theological Ethics, Christian Theological Seminary
Maria’s passion, compassion, and love for the people of Wilcox County shines through in her lecture. I count it a privilege to meet someone who is so genuine and is part of living history.—DeeAnn, student University of South Alabama
Sheryl Threadgill-Matthews brings BAMA kids to meet author Maria Gitin
Save the date for talks in Seattle, Monterey and Palo Alto. Check back for details in a few weeks.
January 13, 2015: Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle WA
7 PM This Bright Light of Ours – Author Book signing event http://www.elliottbaybook.com/
January 14, 2015: Open Windows School, Bellevue WA – MLK student assembly speaker
January 15, 2015: MLK Seattle Celebration 33rd Anniversary, King County, Seattle WA
The Voting Rights Fight, Keynote speaker for community celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. For more information:http://www.mlkseattle.org/
January 22, 2015: YWCA Monterey County
This Bright Light of Ours: Presentation, reading and book signing. Details forthcoming.
January 28, 2015: Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
This Bright Light of Ours: Presentation, reading and book signing Details forthcoming.
Temple Beth El Book Launch Celebration
Praise for Maria Gitin Presentations
Thank you! thank you! Thank you! Your contribution to the “Voice of Conscience: Civil Rights, Post-Civil Rights and the Future Freedom Struggle” was the highlight. You are a remarkable friend and colleague. As Director of the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt and on behalf of the program committee we thank you. – Victor D Anderson, Vanderbilt University
I learned a good bit from your presentation. I referenced you in the final chapter of” A Child Shall Lead Them.” Your book will be a valuable resource, and will be one I will want to use in my King course. – Rufus Burrow Indiana Professor of Christian Thought and Theological Ethics, Christian Theological Seminary
Maria’s passion, compassion, and love for the people of Wilcox County shines through in her lecture. I count it a privilege to meet someone who is so genuine and is part of living history.—DeeAnn, student University of South Alabama
Community Leader and diversity champion George Ow Jr. will introduce Maria Gitin’s reading and book signing event at Bookshop Santa Cruz
Monday August 11th 7:30 PM
Free and open to All
Read More about the Book: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/news/ci_26286254/local-writer-maria-gitin-looks-back-at-civil
Daniel Dodge Sr, Maria Gitin, Felipe Hernandez, Mavel Arujo and George Ow Jr NAACP Banquet 2014
Representatives of families featured in the book are welcomed and recognized at all events.
Thursday March 6th 6:00-8:00 PM
A Celebration of Civil Rights with Author Maria Gitin
Lena Powell Convention Center 211 Claiborne Street, Camden, Alabama
Maria Gitin, a veteran of the Summer of 1965 voting rights movement in Wilcox County, will present a memorial slideshow, read and speak about her new book “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight”, University of Alabama Press. Rev Dr Lewis V Baldwin King Scholar, Author and Camden native, will offer the invocation. Food and beverages will be hosted by the Wilcox Section of the NCNW. Book sales will be conducted by Black Belt Treasures. Free and open to all.
Saturday March 8, 5-7 PM
This Bright Light of Ours, Author Maria Gitin to Appear at Selma Jubilee Author’s Corner – St James Hotel, Water Avenue, Selma, AL
University of Alabama Press is pleased to announce that Maria Gitin, author of the new civil rights memoir and history, “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight” will be featured in the Selma Jubilee “Authors’ Corner” Saturday March 8, 5-7 PM. This annual event features civil rights authors. The book will be available for purchase and Maria Gitin will be available for signing.
Sunday March 9 -Selma Jubilee March Special Notice –
Meet at 1 PM outside Brown Chapel, to walk with Wilcox County Freedom Fighters 2:00-3:00 PM
The annual bridge re-enactment ceremony, commemorating Bloody Sunday, will take place this year on Sunday March 9th. In addition to celebrity guests including Lou Gossett Jr, there will be a large contingent of activists and former civil rights workers from Wilcox County, AL. This will be the largest gathering of Wilcox County marchers since the original event March 7, 1965 during which hundreds of nonviolent voting rights demonstrators were tear gassed, beaten and trampled by officers on horseback. Many Wilcox County residents and former activists attend the Re-enactment march annually. This year, many are attending in commemoration of the publication of “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight”, which contains the stories of more than thirty individuals and families who were active in the 1960’s voting rights movement. The group will meet at 1 PM across from Brown Chapel, under the “Wilcox County Freedom Fighters” banner. Many of the grassroots activists and the author will be available for interviews and photographs.
Monday March 10th 6-7 PM Rosa Parks Museum Auditorium, Montgomery AL
Maria Gitin, civil rights veteran and author of “This Bright Light of Ours”, Universite of Alabama Press will be joined Lewis V Baldwin, Camden native and Martin Luther King Scholar and author in a presentation, discussion and book signing. The two will discuss King’s influence on their lives as teenagers, and how that influence affected their life choices. The audience will then be invited to ask questions related to the topic: Where do we go from here? Both authors will read and discuss their own recent works. Open to the public.
Tuesday March 11th 6-7 PM “The Rankins Files” Radio Interview
Deborah Rankins will interview author and civil rights veteran Maria Gitin and Joy Crawford-Washington, whose grandparents kept a safe house for civil rights workers in Pine Apple, Alabama. The Crawford family is featured in Ms. Gitin’s new book about the Wilcox County Voting Rights Movement, “This Bright Light of Ours” from University of Alabama Press.The Rankins Files, is a live broadcast on DIXIE 94.5 FM/WHOD heard in southwest Alabama, on the internet www.bamadixie.com and smart phone through the TUNEIN app.
Thursday March 13th 5:30-7:30 PM History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
Author and civil rights veteran Maria Gitin will present an historic slide show, read and discuss her new book “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Fight,” University of Alabama Press. A reception and book signing will follow. All are welcome.
Wilcox County Freedom Fighters 