Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Selma marcher, dies at 75

Lynda Blackmon Lowery, who as a teenager was a foot soldier in the Selma voting-rights movement, died on Dec. 24 at her home in Selma. She was 75. Her daughter, Danita Blackmon, confirmed the death but did not specify a cause. Ms. Lowery was 14 on March 7, 1965, when state troopers and sheriff’s deputies attacked unarmed marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an event known as “Bloody Sunday.” She said she had been arrested nine times before she turned 15; during the attack she was grabbed and struck with a baseball bat, sustaining wounds that required seven stitches over her right eye and 28 on the back of her head.

Many other protesters were beaten and tear-gassed, including the civil rights leader John Lewis, who suffered a fractured skull. A federal judge authorized a second march from Selma to Montgomery beginning March 21, 1965, and Ms. Lowery was among about 300 people who completed the full 54-mile trek.

She was chosen for that group because, according to a fellow marcher, she was “among the most dedicated to the movement.” She turned 15 on the second day of the march and later recalled shouting, “I’m here, Governor Wallace, I’m here!” outside the Alabama Capitol. Born on March 22, 1950, in Selma, Ms.

Lowery worked as a home health aide and safety officer, earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the College of Staten Island in 1982, and spent years as a case manager at a mental health center in Selma.

Key Topics

Politics, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Bloody Sunday, Selma, Voting Rights Act