March 21, 2025

4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Ebenezer Baptist Church 1548 FD Reese Street Selma, AL 36703

https://fdreesefoundation.org/

Mr. Fredrick Douglass Reese was born in Selma, AL on November 29, 1929.  Mr. Reese would go on to graduate from Alabama State University with a master’s degree in Math and Science.  Mr. Reese would marry, Alline Crossing, and move back to Selma in 1960 where he began teaching at R. B. Hudson High School and he joined the Dallas County Voters League.  Mr. Reese became president of the DCVL and invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Southern Christian Leadership Conference to Selma to support efforts for Blacks to be able to vote.  He was one of the “Courageous Eight,” of the Dallas County Voters League that included Amelia Boynton, Ulysses S. Blackmon, James E. Gildersleeve, Rev. John Hunter, Rev. Henry Shannon, Earnest Doyle, and Marie Fost.

On January 22, 1965, Mr. Reese would lead over 100 Black Teachers on a march to the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote.  Mr. Reese and the Teachers were not allowed in the building and was aggressively push away by law enforcement.  The actions of Mr. Reese and the Black Teachers of Selma, galvanized students at R. B. Hudson to begin marching for their rights as well as the rights of their parents.  Mr. Reese played pivotal roles before and after Bloody Sunday, as one of the leading citizens fighting for civil rights in Selma.  The city of Selma designated March 21st of every year to be, “F.D. Reese Day.”