[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 76 (Thursday, April 30, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S2164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING JOANNE BLAND

  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor civil rights 
activist and icon Joanne Bland. Ms. Bland was only 11 years old when 
Bloody Sunday occurred in her hometown of Selma, AL, and one of the 
youngest people to join the historic 1965 Voting Rights March from 
Selma to Alabama's capital of Montgomery.
  I was honored to meet Ms. Bland in 2005, when I joined her and 
hundreds of others during an early Congressional Civil Rights 
Pilgrimage, led by the late Representative John Lewis of Georgia, to 
Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. 
We later interacted frequently during her visits to Wisconsin.
  Those of us in Wisconsin were privileged to enjoy a special 
relationship with Ms. Bland. Beginning 25 years ago, after 
participating in a presentation called ``Milwaukee: the Selma of the 
North,'' she traveled to campuses and communities throughout Wisconsin 
dozens of times to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the 
contemporary meanings of the movement for voting rights. She 
established ongoing relationships with the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and Beloit College, sharing her work and story with countless 
students. In turn, many of these students spent time in Selma to help 
her build the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. Ms. Bland 
was the institution's first director.
  Ms. Bland's dedication to activism in her civil and human rights work 
touched the lives of her community in Selma and far beyond. She grew up 
in segregated Selma, where she witnessed and participated in some of 
our Nation's most monumental civil rights battles. Committed to 
nonviolent civil disobedience--a hallmark of the civil rights movement 
led, in part, by her teacher and mentor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--
she was arrested for the first time at just 8 years old. By the time 
she reached 11 years old, she had been arrested a further 13 times in 
pursuit of civil rights.
  Throughout her life, Ms. Bland remained a fearless advocate for 
racial justice and a pillar of Selma's community. She served in the 
Army and graduated with a bachelor of arts from the College of Staten 
Island. She was an educator and historian of the Selma March and 
cofounded the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in 1993, 
where she stressed the idea that the history of civil rights is not 
just Black history, but American history. A central tenet of this work 
was her belief that history had all too often rendered invisible the 
untold stories of countless women and children who had been at the core 
of the March and that these stories now needed to be told. The museum 
she helped build was grounded in the grassroots, and to this day, the 
museum has been able to operate for more than three decades without a 
major Federal funding grant.
  More recently, she launched Foot Soldiers Park which, to her, was 
``more than a memorial.'' She saw it as a space where young people 
could come together to learn about history, art, music, and leadership 
to invest in their own dreams. In 2010, she created her own touring 
agency, Journeys of the Soul, to teach the public about the history of 
the civil rights movement with a focus on Selma, AL. In 2015, on the 
occasion of the 50th anniversary march jubilee, she organized a panel 
in which now elderly footsoldiers who had been teens in 1965 came into 
dialogue with the teens of today. It was her way of reminding these 
young people of the important role they must now play at a time when 
voting rights are being threatened again as never before. Ms. Bland's 
passion for educating her community will impact Selma and the Nation 
for years to come.
  Ms. Bland's life work of activism and education towards a better 
America will be remembered in all our hearts. As a lifelong civil 
rights leader, her impact on Selma and beyond will continue through the 
institutions she has built and will be felt beyond her passing. Ms. 
Bland has taught us the value of giving back to our community and 
investing in future generations. I am honored to join our community in 
celebrating her life defined by her love and dedication to this 
country. We recognize and honor her extraordinary contributions not 
only to Alabama, but to the greater civil rights movement and fight for 
racial equality.

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