Marion, Alabama, is one of the true ìcradles of Civil Rights.î The county seat of Perry County, west of Selma, Marion was the home of Jimmy Lee Jackson, the man whose murder in February 1965 is widely regarded as the catalyst for the Selma to Montgomery March. Jackson was shot when a raid against a mass meeting at the Zion United Methodist Church in downtown Marion turned violent. Among those who were there that night was Helen Avery, the grandmother of one of BTWís Creative Writing students.

On Saturday, April 2, 2005, three students, one parent, and Foster Dickson traveled to Newbern, Alabama, a small community on the outlying edges of Marion, to meet Mrs. Avery, as well as her sister Willie Nell Avery, her daughter Gladys Avery Agnew, and family friends Mattie Atkins and Luke Jackson, Jr. (no relation to Jimmy Lee Jackson). We met at the small volunteer fire department and grouped around several heavy wooden picnic tables as they told their stories of how heartbreak and anguish became a firm resolve to put it to an end. They had never been interviewed about their experiences before.