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Civil Rights Icon Bettie Mae Fikes Shares Her Story

Bettie Mae Fikes was only 14 years old when she began sitting in at lunch counters, boycotting buses, registering voters and leading walkouts of R.B. Hudson High School as part of the Civil Rights movement.

“It’s hard for me to revisit this,” she told a packed house at Hartwick’s Belonging Center. “But I have to give you what I know. I need you to feel it because I still feel it.”

Originally scheduled to speak for only 45 minutes, Fikes spoke for nearly two hours about her experiences marching from Selma to Montgomery alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Congressman John Lewis. A member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement, her rendition of This Little Light of Mine earned her the reputation as the “Voice of Selma.”

Her story had a profound impact on the audience.

“Hers is a story that needs to be heard. I was so happy to be here to hear it.”

Charis Peters '26

“It’s so easy to feel helpless in times of oppression, but Ms. Fikes showed us that it is not about us as individuals, but it is about advocating for everyone around us,” said Gianna Boveri, health promotion coordinator. “If everyone heard her story, the world would be a much different place.”

Fikes stressed that while people must never forget injustice, they also must forgive.

“If you don’t forgive, you’re holding yourself hostage.”

And even though she insisted she didn’t sing in public much anymore, she still brought out a few verses of This Little Light of Mine.

“When I sing, I feel that power,” she said with a smile. “Do you feel it?”

Bettie Mae Fikes with Biama Charles and Alicia Richardson

Bettie Mae Fikes with Biama Charles, deputy DEIB officer & founding director of the office of diversity, inclusion and belonging, and Alicia Richardson, college diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging officer.

February 6, 2025
Belonging, DEIB, What's New

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