Tammy Baldwin: “I rise today to honor civil rights activist and icon Joanne Bland. Ms. Bland was only 11 years old when Bloody Sunday…”

“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.”