Bettie Mae Fikes
Bettie Mae Fikes (born 1948), also known as The Voice of Selma,[1] is an American singer and civil rights activist.
Life[]
Born in Selma, Alabama in 1948, she began singing at the age of four.[2] Fikes was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers,[3] and became known as "the Voice of Selma".[4] She was jailed as a teenager in 1963 for her participation in a Selma protest, and was also involved in Bloody Sunday in 1965.[citation needed] Her new lyrics for "This Little Light of Mine" and other songs became particularly known.[citation needed] She performed at both the 1964 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Democratic National Convention.[citation needed] In 2020, she sang at the funeral services for John Lewis, which she indicated might be her final public performance.[5]
References[]
Citations[]
- ^ "Bettie Mae Fikes". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ Hutchinson 1999, p. 143.
- ^ Living Blues Publications 2007, p. 44.
- ^ "Bettie Mae Fikes". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- ^ "John Lewis, Sharecroppers' Son, Is Given A Heroes Sendoff In Alabama". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
Bibliography[]
- Hutchinson, John (26 August 1999). The Hutchinson Encyclopedia Of Modern Political Biography. Avalon Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8133-3741-8.
- Living Blues Publications (2007). Living Blues. 188–193. Living Blues Publications.
External links[]
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- 1948 births
- Living people
- People from Selma, Alabama
- Singers from Alabama
- American civil rights activists
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- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
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- African-American female singers
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- 20th-century American singers
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