One month ago, we lost a giant: iconic civil rights activist Joanne Bland. In 2022, Converge Media had the honor of documenting Bland’s voice in the film “Sankofa Impact,” in collaboration with Obsidian Creative Studios and Choose180. We travelled to Bland’s hometown of Selma, Alabama to capture her commanding words, shaped by decades of mobilization and paying for the cost of freedom.

Bland was a foot soldier who began her march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as an eight-year-old in 1961 and never looked back. By age 11, she had been arrested 13 times for demanding the right to vote, forging a legacy of endurance and commitment in her fight for justice. 

Reflecting on her role as a young girl marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, Bland recalled Dr. King’s court order that gave activists the legal right to march 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery in the fight for Black people’s right to vote. Her footprints walked in tandem with Dr. King, each step representing one stride closer to true justice in the United States.  

We share her testimony today with a renewed commitment to stay on the battlefield and continue marching toward our dreams with intentionality, just as she taught us.