Children of the Movement
Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery
Interviewed by Dr. Autumn Brown
Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery is a native of Montgomery, AL and the second child of Richard and Vera Harris. Dr. Richard Harris was a pharmacist and owner of Dean Drug Store, one of the oldest black pharmacies in Montgomery. There he coordinated transportation during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and opened his family’s home to the Freedom Riders in May of 1961 as a safe haven for rest and strategic planning. He was also a Tuskegee Airman. In 2006, Dr. Valda Montgomery successfully sought historic recognition in the form of a marker for the Harris House and is in the process of opening the family home to tourists. She has documented childhood memories of the Civil Rights Movement in a book, “Just a Neighbor”, which highlights the relationship of her family and that of Martin Luther King, Jr. She presently serves as President of the Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
Ruby Shuttlesworth Bester
Interviewed by Dr. autumn brown
Ruby Shuttlesworth-Bester is the second daughter of Fred Shuttlesworth and Ruby Lynette Keeler Shuttlesworth. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Ruby had a front row seat to the historic Civil Rights Movement that took place in Alabama. Her father, Fred, was a Baptist minister who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism in Birmingham and eventually became a co-founder of the Souther Christian Leadership Conference. Fred is often called "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South," but Ruby also calls attention to her mother's contribution throughout the movement, describing her as the wind beneath her father's wings. Ruby Shuttlesworth-Bester moved from Birmingham to Cincinnati in 1961 where her father founded the Greater New Life Baptist Church. She attended the University of Cincinnati and worked as an educator for more than 30 years. Shuttlesworth-Bester has two children—Audra Ricquel Bester and Rev. Harold Steven Bester.
Lynda Blackmon Lowery
Interviewed by Terrel Respass
Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the first child of four children born to Alfred Charles and Ludie Wright Blackmon, began her civil rights activism in the early 60s. SNCC activists organized Lowery and other area children and teenagers to participate in the civil rights movement. The young Lowery marched on "Bloody Sunday", and "Turn Around Tuesday", received 35 stitches after being beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and is the youngest marcher to walk every step of the successful March from Selma to Montgomery. Mrs. Lowery is a graduate of the College of Staten Island and the author of Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom “My story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March”– Lowery collaborative project with Elspeth Leacock & Susan Buckley.