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Gainesville woman recounts Selma march for civil rights
Ferris Hardin's experience with civil rights movement changed her life
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Ferris Hardin made her way to Selma, Ala., in 1965, after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for volunteers to help register voters in the city. Hardin, along with many others, were jailed during their efforts in the corrupt Southern town. She also attended the 50th anniversary this year with her own family.
In 1965, Northwestern University senior Ferris Hardin felt a calling to be a small cog in a big social machine and change America in the small town of Selma, Ala. Nearly 50 years later, Hardin and thousands of others returned to the site of three protest marches to mark the anniversary of the world-changing event. The protests in 1965 shined a spotlight on the racial divide and raised awareness about the need for the Voting Rights Act.