Bettie Mae Fikes

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Bettie Mae Fikes (born April 16, 1946) [1] also known as The Voice of Selma, [2] is an American singer and civil rights activist.

Contents

Fikes singing "This Little Light of Mine" in Selma, Alabama, in 2019.

Life

Born in Selma, Alabama in 1948, she began singing at the age of four. [3] Early on, at the age of four, Fikes fell in love with the power of gospel singing while attending church on Sunday's with her gospel-singing mother. [4] Fikes was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers, [5] and became known as "the Voice of Selma". [6] At 16, she joined the SNCC to get out of her house and to find something to do. Soon, she found a righteous cause to be a part of. [7] The enormity of the cause would soon become apparent. Fikes would personally take part in sit-ins at whites-only restaurant counters, bus boycotts, school walkouts and voter registration rallies. Fikes briefly described some of the horrific scenes that she witnessed over the years from beatings and shootings to stabbings and fire bombings. Those disturbing images forever seared into her memory. [8] She was jailed as a teenager in 1963 for her participation in a Selma protest and was also involved in Bloody Sunday in 1965. [9]

She performed at both the 1964 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Democratic National Convention where Maya Angelou introduced her. [10] [ citation needed ] In 2020, she sang at the funeral services for John Lewis, which she indicated might be her final public performance. [11] In 2023, Fikes joined President Biden to commemorate the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama where she also received a standing ovation at the State of the Union. [12] [13]

References

  1. ↑ "Bettie Mae Fikes, Singer and Activist born". African American Registry. Archived from the original on 2025-04-22. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  2. ↑ "Bettie Mae Fikes". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. ↑ Hutchinson 1999, p. 143.
  4. ↑ "Civil Rights Advocate Bettie Mae Fikes, Through Words and Song, Encourages Atlantic Cape Students to Keeping Fighting for Equality". atlanticcape.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  5. ↑ Living Blues Publications 2007, p. 44.
  6. ↑ "Bettie Mae Fikes". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  7. ↑ "Civil Rights Advocate Bettie Mae Fikes, Through Words and Song, Encourages Atlantic Cape Students to Keeping Fighting for Equality". atlanticcape.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  8. ↑ "Civil Rights Advocate Bettie Mae Fikes, Through Words and Song, Encourages Atlantic Cape Students to Keeping Fighting for Equality". atlanticcape.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  9. ↑ "Bettie Mae Fikes". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
  10. ↑ "Bettie Mae Fikes, Singer and Activist born". African American Registry. Archived from the original on 2025-04-22. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  11. ↑ "John Lewis, Sharecroppers' Son, Is Given A Heroes Sendoff In Alabama". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  12. ↑ Samuel, Bunmi (2024-03-09). "Bettie Mae Fikes, SNCC Veteran & Member of the Freedom Singers, attends 2024 State of the Union Address". SNCC Legacy Project - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  13. ↑ KHOU 11 (2024-03-07). Bettie Mae Fikes, the 'Voice of Selma,' gets standing ovation at State of the Union . Retrieved 2025-10-08– via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

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