Ruby Sales Marched on Montgomery in 1965
The campus community will learn about the American Civil Rights Movement and the racial divide that still exists in America a half century later from a participant who’s had guns pointed at her and served time in jail for exercising her right of protest.
Ruby N. Sales will give a Women’s History Month presentation March 26, at 7 p.m., in the McCoy Room of Kelly Center. The offices of Campus Ministry and Diversity & Inclusion are sponsoring her visit.
PICTURED: Ruby Sales, Activist
The African American social activist and spiritual leader gave a recent Ted Talk titled “How Can We Start to Heal the Pain of Racial Division Among Us?” The PBS program, “Religion and Ethics Weekly,” described her as a “legendary civil rights activist.”
As a youth, Sales attended racially segregated schools and, at 17 years of age, participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. She was arrested that year with others for picketing a whites-only store in Alabama. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited such segregation.
One hopes she tells the compelling story of what happened immediately upon her release from jail and how its aftermath led to the reform of jury selection procedures in the 1960s.
Sales has worked as a human rights advocate in Washington, D.C., where she founded The Spirit House Project, a non-profit organization and inner-city mission.
