Filming History: The Selma to Montgomery March Campsites

My journey with the campsite families began in Anniston, Alabama in October 2020. I was given an informational booklet on the Selma to Montgomery March, and I reached out to a friend to tell her that I was interested in learning more about the campsites. Her next comment was, “Are you sure that is something you want to work on?” before telling me how difficult it would be, how others had tried and failed and how there was no unity. I was given three phone numbers, one from each family, and was told good luck. I challenged myself to see what I could accomplish.

I know that trust is earned, never given. I was so in awe of these people who helped destroy the Jim Crow segregation system, I was literally star struck. I had only read the names on pages in books, and now I was meeting people who were actually present when history was made. I started by listening to the campsite families, and approached building a relationship with them by asking, “How can I help? What can I do to help develop the ideas that you have for these sites?”

My first time meeting all three families was also the very first time they had all met each other. We met on March 21, 2021, the 56th anniversary of the start of the march, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. I kept thinking, “This is my first time ever walking over this historical bridge, and I am walking over it with the campsite families. How cool is that?”

We eventually began conversations about visions, goals, hopes and dreams. From those conversations a familiar theme began to form. The families wanted for the first time to share the history that their family names represent. The documentary film “54 Miles From Home” came from that desire.

The film has been viewed several times and screened at film festivals. The campsite families have held two showings for family members and friends at the campsites, and those were very special events. The first time that the campsite families gathered for a public screening of the film really stands out for me. One by one, members of the families got up and spoke publicly for the first time about their story and the film, and it was just an amazing experience.

The goal of all involved, and this was certainly true of me and the film’s director Claire Haughey, was to create a film that captured the words and the story that the families wanted to tell. It is the truth of Mr. David Hall, Ms. Rosie Steele, Mr. Robert Gardner and their families—their truth, their words. In our view the film would only be successful if the families were satisfied with the way their story was represented.

It was a huge honor to be a small part of a team that put together this film and cared about this story. There will be other films to follow, but this will always be the first. Often, I am asked how people can help with this project. I tell them to watch and share the film, and to read more about the campsites. This film, this story, and this historical moment really define words like courage, bravery, service, and kindness and bring a whole new level of understanding to their meaning.