Sisters of Selma

2000-2002 Research & Fundraising

2003-2004 Production
Rochester in October 
Selma in November
St. Louis in March
Selma in April
Pasadena in June

2004-2006 Editing & Completion

Since Sandra Chandler had prior commitments, her friend and colleague PBS veteran John Hazard was on camera while Mark Mandler recorded sound.  The five sisters who had agreed to be interviewed met in the motherhouse library.  They reminisced, and looked at the archival footage and photographs from the SSJR archives.

Additional funding and in-kind contributions

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester

WXXI Channel 21, Rochester

Thomas F. Judson & Elizabeth W. Judson Foundation, Rochester

NBC Channel 10, Rochester

In the week before Thanksgiving, Hart, Dovi (sound recordist), Chandler, and APTV videographer Harmon videotaped interviews in Selma.

Dr. Frederick Reese hosted our meeting with the Perkins family at his Ebenezer Baptist Church.  From him and from Mayor Perkins, we heard the non-Catholic perspective on our story.  The Selma City Council and the Rotary Club allowed us to videotape meetings as a measure of racial integration in Selma's civic life.

We met with Sister Jane Kelly who was the first sister not of the SSJR to join the mission in Selma.  Mrs. Evelyn Merritt, Mrs. Perkins and Ms. Dorothy Chatmon also shared their memories and photographs of the Good Samaritan hospital. There were good memories of the nursing school and painful memories of the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson.

The opening of the Good Samaritan Hospital in 1964. The new Mayor Joe Smitherman cuts the ribbon watched by Hospital Administrator Sister Michael Ann.   Photo courtesy Dorothy Chatmon
		Johnny Crear, who was the next Good Samaritan administrator, tells us about the influence of the Catholic fathers and sisters on his early years in Selma.  He and Alston Fitts showed us the hospital log book with the permission of the city's Old Depot Museum.
At Sunday Mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace, we learned about the racial integration of the Catholic parishes.		Later in the chapel of the old "Black" church of St. Elizabeth's, we sat down with Father Maurice Ouellet.  "The real heroes were the people who crossed the bridge," he said. "We, the sisters and the priests, were here to bear witness, to help in any way we could."
		We also filmed the present-day Alabama Mission in Pine Apple where the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester have been joined by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Benedictine sisters, the sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Daughters of the Holy Spirit.
Production Stills: Robert Bullock (Selma Times Journal) Ricky Harmon (APTV) & Jayasri Hart

Accommodation in Selma provided by Jameson Inn, Broad Street.

March 14-21 marked the third week of principal photography when the team of Hart, Chandler, and Dovi walked down memory lane with Sister Mary Antona FSM, CSJ Sisters Ernest Marie, Thomas Marguerite, and Ann Benedict, and Therese Stawowy and Christine (who were Loretto sisters Ann Christopher and Christine Mary in 1965).  Charles Staples of Stepstone Productions, St. Louis, came on board as second camera & production assistant.  St. Joseph's Convent hosted us for a week. 

In April we returned to Selma to complete principal photography.  We gathered images that set the scenes on "Sylvan Street," at the Brown Chapel, on Hwy 80 to Selma, and, of course, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  Former mayor Joe T. Smitherman was not willing to be interviewed, but we were able to get former City Council President Carl Morgan and City Council member Mrs. Jean Martin to speak for him.  Mr. Smitherman passed away in 2005.  We regret not having been able to show him the finished film, but we have had positive reactions to the rough cut from everyone else and we can only hope he would have approved.  

In the African American community, we interviewed Catholics and Baptists.  We had Bishop Moses Anderson who celebrated Palm Sunday mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace, his sister Lola Doss,  and Selma resident Mrs. Jean Jackson.  Finally, Alston Fitts III filled in the history and provided some commentary.

The use of Selma resident Kim Ballard's Cadillac, which he generously donated, cushioned the moving shots to the point that they unfold like a reverie.

The power of prayer may have propelled us toward the discovery of Sister Mary Leoline, BVM (Mary Ann Sommer) who was the only sister to survive the five gruelling days of the Selma-Montgomery march. She very kindly agreed to come to the BVM convent in Pasadena from Salt Lake City where she lived.  Sister Mary Ann passed away in March 2006, exactly 41 years from the day she first asked her superior for permission to go to Selma.

last updated 12-10-2006