Books
Book Review: Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom
By Kam Williams
Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
She vowed to make a difference—
and she did.”
— Excerpted from the Bookjack-
et
Turning 15 on the Road to
Freedom: My Story of the
1965 Selma Voting Rights
March
By Lynda Blackmon Lowery
As told to Elspeth Leacock
and Susan Buckley
Illustrated by PJ Loughran
Dial Books
Hardcover, $19.99
128 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4123-2
“Jailed nine times before her
15th birthday, Lynda Blackmon
Lowery refused to give up the fight
for equal rights. She was the
youngest marcher on the historic
1965 voting rights march from
The recent brouhaha over
whether or not LBJ was dissed in
the movie Selma has unfairly
shifted the focus from the brave
marchers who had their heads
cracked open by racist police to a
U.S. President sitting safely in the
White House hundreds of miles
away. If you’re interested in an
eyewitness account of what actu-
ally transpired at the Edmund
Pettus Bridge back in March of
1965, I heartily recommend Turn-
ing 15 on the Road to
Freedom.
As the title suggests, the author
was a teenager when
her
grandmother
first took her to hear
Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. speak at a
church in their
hometown of Selma.
Lynda Blackmon
Lowery was instant-
ly inspired by the
charismatic leader
to get involved in
the Civil Rights
Movement,
even
though she was
barely in her teens.
She initially served as part of the
support team for high school stu-
dents staging sit-ins at segregated
places like lunch counters and
movie theaters. But when Dr. King
returned in 1965, Lynda declared
herself ready to participate in acts
of non-violent civil
disobedience, too.
Consequently, by
the time she would
turn 15, she had
already been arrest-
ed
nine
times
simply for seeking
rights equal to
whites. While in
jail, she was sub-
jected to torture
prohibited by the
Geneva Conven-
tions, such as the
occasion when she was left to
roast in a windowless iron sweat-
box until she literally passed out
from the heat.
Later, during the first Selma
march nicknamed “Bloody Sun-
day,” Lynda was not only tear
gassed but knocked unconscious
29TH ANNUAL
with a billy club by a cop calling
her the “N-word.” It took 35
stitches to stop the blood gushing
from her head, yet neither the
beating nor the wound could dis-
courage the determined young
lady from joining the march from
Selma to the Alabama state capital
in Montgomery two weeks later.
All of the above is recounted in
vivid detail in this illustrated
memoir aimed at young adult
readers 12 and older. That target
demographic makes sense, given
Lynda’s age at the time of the
demonstration and the fact that, as
she says, “The Selma Movement
was a kids’ movement.”
Selma, as emotionally and
absorbingly recalled by an unsung
hero who persevered in the face of
vicious intimidation on the part of
the police.
Tha
n
k
Martin Luther King, Jr. You
BREAKFAST
PHOTO BY ANDREW DE VIGAL
THANK YOU to all of our
sponsors for making
this event possible.
The International Business Times put The Skanner News Martin Luther King Breakfast on its
short list of ‘Best events to celebrate birthday and life of Martin Luther King Jr. around the US’.
Page 12 The Portland and Seattle Skanner January 21, 2015