Fledgling School Hopes to be an Integrated Alternative

Apr 29, 2015 | Stories

Shania Black, 12, was the first black student to attend all-white Morgan Academy, a school founded on the heels of integration in the ’60s, as white families pulled their children out of the public schools. Though she wasn’t threatened herself, she says that other students she carpooled with were bullied for being friends with her and their families received death threats. “I’m glad I that I didn’t know about that then,” she said. “But now I’m happy that I did that because after that year another girl that was African American came to that school, too, and I think me going there helped other African American families know that they could go there, too.” That was in 2008, when Black became the first African American student at the private school that had been all-white since its founding in 1965. She stayed there until this year when she moved to the Freedom Academy, a brand new school run by volunteers from a nonprofit, community-based organization called The Freedom Foundation. ***** Selma Community Church sits on the corner of Selma Avenue and Franklin Street. It is a typical-looking Southern church that was built in 1906. But inside the doors, an unexpected scene unfolds each day: A group of children are laughing, talking, eating lunch and preparing for their speech class. This is Selma’s Freedom Academy, an innovative school that provides an alternative option to traditional education where kids get to explore their passions. The residents of Selma find their city stuck in the past. “In some ways, [the civil rights battle in] Selma helped the whole world but Selma got left...

A New CEO for Selma’s Troubled Schools

Apr 30, 2015 | Stories

Video: Newly appointed School Superintendent Angela Mangum gives her vision for turning Selma’s beleaguered school system around.   After years of struggling, the Selma City School district is hoping to start a new chapter by appointing Angela Mangum as the district’s new Superintendent, a job comparable to the CEO of a company. Mangum inherits a system that has been plagued with poor performance for years. The high school, Selma High, recorded a graduation rate of 67 percent in the 2012-2013 school year. However, in 2014, 80 percent of the students graduated, a feat which Mangum hopes the school, and the entire district, can build upon moving forward. But that same year, they changed the way that “graduation rates” were calculated so that instead of measuring how many students graduated in four years, it measured how many graduated in five years. The test scores for Selma High students are low. Less than one percent of high school students tested as exceeding or meeting grade level expectations in science, according to the Alabama Department of Education. Only 2.4 percent met or exceeded standards in math. In English, 37.1 percent met or exceed standards. There are 1,500 students at the high school and, years after integration, the school is 99 percent African American with 89 percent qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Selma’s R.B. Hudson Middle School is one of 66 Alabama schools on the national “failing schools: list due to consistently poor test scores. The Selma City schools themselves were so poor and badly managed that the state intervened in 2012 to take them over and appoint an interim superintendent. State investigators found sexual misconduct—the accused teacher was later convicted...

Seeding a Garden in the Food Desert

Apr 27, 2015 | Stories

For $10 local residents dined on southern delicacies like pulled pork sandwiches, ribs and chicken. The more adventurous tasted alligator bites and rattlesnake eggs all in the name of supporting Grow Selma’s goal to build a community garden during the Rock ‘N ‘Ribs benefit on April 25, at Lion’s Fair Park in Selma. “The community is going to learn all about healthy food, how to plant, and maintain a garden,” said Grow Selma board member, Jerria Martin. The organization was founded by Selma resident Clay Carmichael, who wanted to start a benefit group and organize events to fundraise for local charities. Times are tough in Selma—particularly for the black community. The median household income for white residents in Selma is $41,448 but for black residents, it is $19,591. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent for white men and 18.8 percent for black men. Many families are struggling for balanced meals in what local residents call a “food desert,” an area defined by the Agriculture Department as one where healthful local foods are hard to find due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers markets and healthy food providers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2009 and 2013, the poverty rate for Selma’s white residents (3,562 during that period) was 14.4 percent, while the percentage of blacks below the poverty level was 48.4 percent. In Selma, the number of poor people has only grown in the 50 years since the community became one of the epicenters of the civil rights and poor peoples’ movements. The number of people who receive food stamps remains high. Forty-eight percent of the...

Protest on the Bridge

Apr 26, 2015 | Stories

April 24, – Each year in April, a month after celebrating the voting rights victories achieved in Selma, the town hosts the Battle of Selma Re-enactment festivities. Thousands of people come to town to remember the April 1865 Civil War battle in which Selma’s Confederate Troops were defeated by Union troops. For some, the observance of this part of the town’s Confederate past honors the people who fought against the rights of black people, who now make up the majority of the town’s population. Abayomi Goodall, the director at the Slavery & Civil War Museum, leads a protest against the celebration of confederacy during the 150th Battle of Selma Re-enactment at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Friday, April 24. Photo by Erin Irwin Allen Garner looks on during a demonstration honoring Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Photo by Benjamin McKnight III Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders greets Azali Fortier, a young protestor speaking out against the Battle of Selma reenactment on April 24. Photo by Benjamin McKnight III Fayatoure Rose points onlookers and fellow demonstrators in the direction of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Photo by Benjamin McKnight III Doyle MaurerWVU...

Friends Reflect on Civil Rights and Selma

Apr 29, 2015 | Stories

  Dianne is a two time jail bird, but for the right reasons,” Joyce O’Neal says about her best friend Dianne Harris. Harris was jailed twice for activism during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s in Selma. O’Neal, who was never arrested, was also an activist. The two women, who have been friends for almost 60 years, were teenagers at the time. O’Neal and Harris both lived on the same street as the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, which they attended, and which was at the center of the movement in Selma. It’s been almost 60 years since the two met. Joyce O’Neal, a former Director of the Food Assistance Program for the state of Alabama who is now a tour guide for Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church and Dianne Harris, an educator for almost 30 years, have been friends ever since. As teenagers, O’Neal and Harris attended separate high schools but still remained very close. At the time, schools were segregated. Students from R. B. Hudson High School, where O’Neal was a student, were coming to First Baptist church and to Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to join and organize the marches. O’Neal, wanting to be involved, consulted her mother who advised her not to attend school rather than leaving in the middle of the day to join the march. Harris, who attended Alabama Lutheran Academy, remembers being involved in a different way. “We wanted to be part of history… All we needed was a little encouragement. We already had the thrill.” Harris recalls a young man from R. B. High School visiting her school and asking Harris and her classmates, including her younger brother, to participate in...