NAAM’s Freedom Day celebrates history, culture, equity, and freedom while highlighting the importance of sharing these ideals with ALL members of our community. Freedom Day is a FREE admission day at NAAM offered once a month that provides a variety of community activities, museum activations, and programs for individuals and families of all ages to enjoy at no cost. NAAM uses Freedom Day to spotlight significant and sometimes lesser known moments throughout history that have worked to advance freedom for all. Below review all past events we have celebrated on Freedom Day.
Honoring Selma’s Freedom Day on October 7, 1963
On the morning of October 7, 1963, hundreds of Black residents of Selma, Alabama, gathered well before dawn in order to register to vote at the Dallas County Courthouse. Despite knowing what awaited them—intimidation, slow delays, and violent backlash—they stood in line anyway. The line stretched from the registrar’s office, down the courthouse steps, into the street.
At that time Selma was deeply segregated, and virtually no Black citizens there were registered to vote. Dallas County was about 58% Black, yet less than 1% of eligible Black residents had managed to register. Organizing around voter registration had been underway for months, led by SNCC secretaries Bernard Lafayette and Colia Liddell, along with the Dallas County Voter’s League (DCVL).
When registrants arrived that day, they were met with a deliberate pattern of obstruction and state-sponsored harassment. Registrars moved slowly—only allowing a few people each hour to register—while delays were engineered to discourage the many who were waiting. Participants were forbidden to leave their places in line to eat, drink, or even use the restroom. As the day wore on, about 40 state troopers joined the local law enforcement forces, heightening the intimidation.
Organizers who tried to bring water or food to those waiting in line were attacked. Persons supporting the movement were beaten; in one case, a worker at a rest home was beaten and even burned on the arm and leg with an electric cattle prod. Federal observers from the Justice Department and the FBI were present—witnessing the abuses—but did not intervene to stop the violence.
Though only a small number of registrants were processed that day, the impact extended far beyond raw numbers. Selma’s Freedom Day exposed to regional and national audiences the severity of voter suppression, illustrating not only legal barriers like literacy tests, but also the physical dangers and economic reprisals African Americans faced simply for asserting their rights. Teachers, high school students, and other community members were among those who stepped forward, risking jobs and safety.
In the months that followed, the resolve shown on Freedom Day strengthened community organizing in Selma, growing momentum for subsequent campaigns and protests. These efforts ultimately led to the defining Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965, and helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act—legislation that would finally dismantle many of the institutional barriers to Black voting across the South.
Did You Know?
The name “Freedom Day” was coined by local Black residents in Selma as a way to emphasize that this was not just another registration drive—but an open claim to citizenship and civil rights.
The mass meeting held just two nights before Freedom Day featured speeches from civil rights leaders and activists (including Dick Gregory) and included a telephone tree strategy: attendees were asked to call others in the community—“You’ll know who’s Negro because they won’t have a Mr. or Mrs. in front of their names”—to come out for Freedom Day.
After Freedom Day, reprisals were immediate: workers lost jobs, were beaten or tortured (in one case burned with cattle prods), and everyday life was made more dangerous for those who had shown up. But the resolve held; the actions of Freedom Day formed a turning point in Selma’s Black community, helping shift public opinion and build out the broader civil rights struggle in the region.
