By Marianne Schnall, Contributor.
Originally ran in Forbes: May 5, 2025
Reflecting on the historic figures and events that have advanced rights and freedoms in the U.S. can be a meaningful source of inspiration for today’s leaders who are working toward a more equitable future, especially at a time when many of those hard-won rights feel under threat. Three pro-democracy movement leaders recently had the opportunity to do just that. LaTosha Brown, cofounder of Black Voters Matter, Monica Riley, executive director of The Alabama Alliance, and Pamela Shifman, president of Democracy Alliance—a network of foundations, individual donors, and unions working toward a just, multiracial democracy—organized a first-of-its-kind gathering of Democracy Alliance donors in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, in March to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
Bloody Sunday occurred in March of 1965 when hundreds of peaceful civil rights marchers protesting the denial of voting rights for Black people were violently attacked as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma—an event that became a galvanizing moment for the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year.
“Sixty years ago, there were people who believed in the humanity of themselves and others, and stood on that bridge and did something. They changed the course of history in this nation. These people, and others, were the founders of what we know as modern-day American democracy,” said Brown.
Designed as both a chance to face the truth of history and the promise of the future, the trip included discussions with civil rights and racial justice movement leaders, as well as visits to such landmarks as the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites. On the final day, members of the three organizations joined tens of thousands of people participating in a commemoration march that retraced the steps of those courageous civil rights activists of 1965.
As Shifman described the significance of the gathering, “In this moment of really grave threats to our democracy, we needed to reconnect with some of the boldest democracy champions our country has ever known, to reground in the courage and the boldness of racial justice and civil rights movement leaders, past and present. That is how we can get inspired and to know what is possible.”
She added that it was also about “learning how to support the modern-day brilliant racial justice leaders of our time, including Monica Riley and LaTosha Brown. The work these folks are doing is incredibly important. It’s not just historical work, it’s work that’s happening right now. So we wanted to bring our community here to learn about and be inspired by that work.”
Riley shared her hope that “one of the biggest takeaways I want people to understand is that liberation doesn’t happen in isolation, especially not in a place like Alabama. It’s not just about one group or one fight; it’s about all of us, moving together toward justice and collective freedom.”
To learn more about why thoughtfully marking this event feels particularly relevant in today’s political climate, I interviewed Shifman, Brown and Riley about what they and their organizations took away from the experience, what lessons we can learn from history, the power of solidarity among women in this moment and more.
Marianne Schnall: Why was it important for you all to meet in Selma in March?
LaTosha Brown: Part of the reason I thought it was so important is that we have to remember so we won’t forget, because the future has a past. As we are embarking upon these spaces of strengthening, protecting and expanding this democracy, it is really important that we are reflective of how we got here, the good and the bad. What are the lessons that we can learn from this moment? I think it was important this year in particular as we know the country is highly polarized right now. It’s extremely intense and things are shifting rapidly and there’s a lot of anxiety and fear and concern and care around it. So we thought it was really important for people in this moment to listen, to reflect and reaffirm ourselves to democracy.
Pamela Shifman: This was the first trip of its kind for the Democracy Alliance, and for a pro-democracy community, there literally could not be any more important place to be than part of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. We wanted our Democracy Alliance partners to reconnect with their highest and best and what they could do in this moment. When we look back at this time in history, it is really clear that we will look back and say, “What did we do in this moment of grave threat?” We wanted our community to get in touch with what that was for them.
Schnall: What did you take away from your time in Selma?
Monica Riley: The biggest takeaway for me was the power of community building and the power of intentionality. We deliberately created space to break bread, share stories and prepare people to confront the fuller, more honest history of Alabama’s fight for freedom. Dr. King said, “The most climactic battles have always been fought and won on Alabama soil.” So we can’t talk about building or winning without centering and honoring the place where so much of that struggle began.
Shifman: One big takeaway is about the need for moral courage at this moment. It is very, very profound. We learned what people went through 60 years ago to be able to access the sacred right to vote—the violence they experienced, the perseverance they had to have in order to walk that bridge. And it was a reminder that what we’re experiencing today in the United States, we have always experienced. We have two Americas: one that is grounded in white supremacy and in violent domination and another which is grounded in what is possible, which is a multiracial democracy in which everyone can thrive. That has always been a battle we are in in this country. So it was a reminder of the boldness and the courage it takes to build the country and the democracy that we are trying to build. And it was a reminder about the sacrifice that people made—literally sacrificing their lives for democracy and for the right to vote—and the shoulders we stand on and how important it is for us to carry on that work.
Brown: My quick takeaway is simple: love trumps hate. It’s really that simple. I remember being on the bridge walking, and I was leading freedom songs, and I saw wealthy people walking next to folks who may not have had any resources. I saw the disabled, I saw communities of color. I saw women. I saw young people. I saw Catholics, I saw Muslims. I’m looking at the make of the march, and I’m like, “You can’t beat this. This is what humanity looks like.” So ultimately what I left with was a sense of the power of love and what’s possible when we lean into the love of humanity.
Schnall: What is the importance of women coming together across race, age, class and geography in this moment?
Shifman: Our opposition is very intentional about trying to divide us, to say women cannot be united, that we actually don’t have common cause. Their whole agenda literally is to divide us and make us feel separate and to make us feel like rights are like pie, like if somebody else has rights, then there’s not enough rights to go around. Actually, we can all have them. And as Fannie Lou Hamer says, our liberation is intertwined. I just believe this in the deepest way: none of us are free until all of us are free. We say that a lot, but it’s just so true. I don’t want to live in a world in which other women aren’t free. That is not a good world for any of us.
So I want us to be very clear about the intentionality that our opposition has to divide us and to make us feel separate. It is a strategy for which we have to have the exact opposite strategy. We actually have to be as intentional about staying together, even when it’s hard to stay together. And I think this administration right now gives us such an opportunity to do that, because under their guise of defending women, they’re literally taking away rape crisis centers, they’re proposing cuts to Medicaid and food benefits. They’re rolling back workplace protections. They’re making it more difficult to have abortions. What we are facing is very strong, and the only way we can fight back is to be united. We need it at this time so urgently. We need everyone to speak up.
Brown: And we need people to move beyond seeing this as a political frame. This idea that you’re either left or you’re right or you’re Republican or you’re a Democrat, I’m rejecting that right now. I fundamentally believe that there has to be good people on both extremes who just have different political ideologies, and that’s okay. I think having differences in political ideology creates a rich and diverse and beautiful democracy; that’s what we need. What we don’t need is this idea that there’s a particular ideology and anything against that ideology is to be destroyed and to not have their rights or not to have free will. That is the antithesis of freedom.
So part of what we have to really recognize in this moment is that when we see the oppression of others, that’s simply target practice for ourselves. Ultimately, when people are oppressing others, the same muscle that they’re building when oppressing somebody else, they’re going to be a little bit stronger by the time they get to you. We’ve got to see that and really understand that in this moment.
I don’t care if you don’t care about politics. What you have to care about is that our rights, our freedoms are protected, so we can have the freedom to not care if we don’t want to. But at this point, the consequences are so grave that they go beyond this idea of partisan politics. The truth of the matter is, whatever you need to do to be free in this moment, while we still have some space around it, you better fight like hell to utilize that to shape this moment so that we don’t lose at least the freedom to be.
Schnall: What would you say to other women at this moment? How can they engage, and what is your call to action?
Riley: I want people to know that you do belong. Movement work isn’t reserved for activists and organizers—it’s also made up of those who fund, gather and move the work in quiet and powerful ways. Organize your friends, your family and your resources. There is always a role for you in this fight. And we don’t win without everyone.
Brown: The very fact that this nation was created just in terms of thinking of men, that in itself is part of the weakness. So I think in this moment, I want women to start thinking beyond being citizens of this nation: I need you to start thinking of yourselves as mothers of the new America that has enough space to be inclusive, it has enough space to be equitable, has enough space that every human being can be treated with some measure of respect. We see what happens when women are not at the table, so we’ve got to correct that.
So I want women to be visionaries and use our voice in this moment. It is important for us to stand up and speak out, to talk to our children, our families, our partners, the people in our circle. We’ve got to start getting people organized in that way. And nobody can organize folks, in my opinion, like women.
Shifman: This barrage of executive orders and new, terrible things that happen every day—the whole point of it is to make us feel overwhelmed and powerless. So I think being very clear that we actually do have power and we have power together, it is so important that we operate from that stance. There are things we can do, there are steps we can take. We actually are not powerless in this moment.
The other thing that feels really important is that we are entering a period of time where women are coming into much more wealth. Soon, about two-thirds of that wealth is going to be in the hands of women. So the question is, how will that wealth be put to good? How will that wealth be used to support other women in building the democracy and the country and the world that we want? How is that going to happen? It’s going to happen with intention, and it’s going to happen when small groups of women across race and class come together to strategize and to plan the future that we want to build together.
So this is a big moment of opportunity, and we need to seize it. We need to invest boldly in the incredible leadership of women who are doing the hard work of organizing on the ground. And this is particularly Black women because what is always clear is that Black women are leading democracy. We would be nowhere in this country without Black women leading democracy. And what we know is that Black women don’t get the financial support that they need to be able to do the incredible work of building a democracy that works for all of us. So I would really encourage folks to invest in that power, in that organizing, in that vision, in that brilliance, because it actually benefits all of us.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Black Voters Matter works to increase power in marginalized, predominantly
Black communities. To learn more, visit Blackvotersmatterfund.org.
The Alabama Alliance is a coalition of individual donors and foundations committed to advancing equity and opportunity for all Alabamians. To learn more, visit TheAlabamaAlliance.com.
Democracy Alliance is a network of foundations, individual donors and unions working toward a just, multiracial democracy. To learn more, visit DemocracyAlliance.org.