Customer Reviews

Call to Selma: Eighteen Days of Witness

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To often when we read historical accounts they are written by or about "important", "influencial" figures. It is rare that we have the opportunity to read of such events from the eyes of an average (or not so average, depending on how you look at it), regular person, not unlike ourselves. This book is a compelling account of one person's experience during a turing point in not only the civil rights movement, but in our nation's history. It is a well-written, gripping, moving book that puts the reader right in the middle of the march on Selma. I loved it. I highly recommend it for an individual read or college material. It was remarkable.

Call to Selma: Eighteen Days of Witness

I loved the true story of this remarkable Unitarian minister who had the courage to pack up at the last minute and fly to Selma to participate in the march from Selma to Montgomery. My family had the pleasure of meeting Reverend Leonard in NYC. He is so warm and down to earth. We were honored.

Dick Leonard takes us back 45 years to the deep south, where people were treated differently because of the color of their skin, and denied the right to vote, and so on. Into this came the civil rights activists, and Martin Luther King Jr.

After Bloody Sunday, when peaceful marchers were attacked by local and state police with clubs, whips, tear gas and dogs on the bridge out of Selma, King called on clergymen from all over the country to come and support the efforts of the civil rights marchers.

Dick Leonard was one of those clergymen, coming from New York City. He describes all that he saw and heard and experienced during the 18 days of the Selma to Montgomery march.

This book is a compelling reminder of a time in our country not too long ago.