"Smallest Freedom Fighter" recalls Selma in the '60s

It's good to look back, but not go back, the woman known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Smallest Freedom Fighter" said Saturday night.
Sheyann Webb-Cristburg was keynote speaker at the 12th Annual Community-wide Black History Banquet. sponsored by the Club Yesepoch She is a longtime civil rights activist, youth advocate and co-author of the Book “Selma, Lord, Selma,” which is now a Disney movie. The book and movie are a recollection of her experiences with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement in Selma in the 1960s.
As an 8-year-old, Webb-Christburg took part in the first attempted Selma to Montgomery march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in 1965, a day that became known as Bloody Sunday after the marchers were attacked by law officers and others.
Webb-Cristburg was an 8-year-old girl and was playing outside with her friend Rachel when introduced to King who, they were told, had come to Selma to help blacks obtain voting rights.
She would sneak out of her house to attend the meetings King held nightly, she said, despite warnings from her parents. "It was my first act of disobedience," she said. Webb-Cristburg learned many things from Dr. King.
"He taught Rachel and I to say when asked, ‘Children what do you want?’ the answer should be: ‘freedom’." King also taught her that when asked “When do you want freedom?” the answer should be, “now.”
There were protest demonstrations in Selma when blacks tried to register to vote. One night, a young black man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed while demonstrating for voting rights. To draw attention to his death, it was decided that a 54-mile march to the Alabama state capitol would take place, Webb-Cristburg said.
"The plan was to present a petition to Gov. George Wallace protesting inequality of treatment."
The march was set for Sunday, March 7, 1965, and as people gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, Webb-Cristburg was among them. Once the marchers had crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge, law officers ordered them to turn back. When they refused, they were chased by lawmen on horseback, beaten with billy clubs and tear gassed, she said. As she was running with the other marchers back to Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, a man who was one of the leaders of the march picked her up. Kicking her feet, she yelled "put me down,” because he was not running fast enough, she said.
Webb-Cristburg co-authored the book “Selma, Lord, Selma” with her childhood friend Rachel West. Now a Montgomery resident, Webb-Cristburg works for Alabama State University. She is also founder of Keep Entertaining Everyday People, an organization whose focus is socially- and economically-disadvantaged youth.
She remains determined to keep the fight alive, she said. "That day changed my life forever."