The I-Wireless Center will be packed as hundreds of students graduate from St. Ambrose University. Before they graduate, they’ll get one last lesson to send them off and this year’s commencement speaker has quite the story to tell.
Protestors filled the streets of Selma, Alabama, in March of 1965. Among the crowd was Sister Barbara Moore, "They were feeling strong enough about the situation that they were willing to come and put their lives on the line for something they believed in."
Now, nearly 50 years later, it’s an experience she’s sharing with the next generation.
"I feel like I have a story to share many of them probably weren't even born for example when Selma did happen."
She’ll tell her story to graduating seniors at St. Ambrose University and offer words of encouragement for a problem she says she believes still exist.
"There's so many things are much better race relation wise, there's still a lot in my opinion that needs to be done,” says Moore.
While the movement took place roughly five decades ago, the memory for Moore is still very real. Her delegation was asked to come to try to spread peace, "They felt if we were to come there would be less violence."
"A lot of people lost their lives during the voter registration drive in Selma,” putting a lot at risk for her belief and a day that she says ended up changing her life, "I think it really hit me actually when I returned to Kansas City the very seriousness of the situation and what could or might have happened."
Tomorrow, May 10, 2013 her story could help change the lives of those ready to change the world themselves, "I think a lot of fear comes from ignorance so I think relationship building is very important,” says Moore.
In 2007, PBS did a documentary on Moore called Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change.
