“It’s hard to be a leader when you have a cold heart.”

Bettie Mae Fikes’ voice has helped sustain the moral and cultural power of the Civil Rights movement for 60 years. She has dedicated her life to the power of meaningful music to energize the movement and the importance of spirituality to uplift and carry its principles forward.

She joined our youth and staff for an online leadership seminar focusing on the role of music in bringing people together, helping to organize them for social change.

Born in Selma, Bettie Mae Fikes began singing gospel alongside her mother at age 4 and is descended from a long line of country gospel singers and preachers. At the age of 16 she became a student leader for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Civil Rights Movement, emerging as a music leader. She was jailed for several weeks in 1963 for protesting during the voting rights struggle in Selma.

The Freedom Center continues to turn on a dime, increasing our online classes and sessions during the shelter-in-place order. We are bringing experts from around the world with feet-on-the-ground experience in organizing, civic engagement and public service together with our youth and staff.

This is an excellent time to study the relevance and importance of transforming ourselves to make change in the world.