Selma Jubilee March 5th-8th,2026

Faya Ora Rose Touré (s a civil rights activist, civil rights attorney, and education activist based in Selma, Dallas County. Previously known under the name “Rose Sanders,” she changed her name in 2002, considering it her enslaved name; she took the name “Touré” in honor of Guinea’s first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré. Touré became Alabama’s first Black woman judge in 1973. She has been a polarizing figure in Selma, with some news outlets portraying her as a heroic civil rights leader who has greatly improved the lives of Black people in Alabama, while other media sources consider her a troublemaker and agitator.

Born Rose M. Gaines on May 20, 1945, in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Damon A. Gaines, a minister, and Ora Lee Gaines; she was one of six children. She graduated summa cum laude from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1966. In 1969, she graduated from Harvard Law School, where she won the Herbert Smith Fellowship. In 1970, she married Henry “Hank” Sanders, who also graduated from Harvard Law School;

In 1991, Touré and Marie Foster created the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma. Located adjacent to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the museum opened to the public in 1993. This museum chronicles the civil rights struggle in Alabama and honors the heroes who made great personal sacrifices so that Black citizens could gain the right to vote and strive toward equality. It features exhibits dedicated to Selma’s civil rights history, Reconstruction, woman suffrage, Pres. Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Jim Clark (the notorious sheriff known for his role in Bloody Sunday), and the mass incarceration of Black Americans.

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