Billie Jean Young, co-founder and Director of the Southern Rural Women's Network (SRWN), speaks in Tuskegee, Alabama before the 750-mile pilgrimage to Washington. The pilgrimage is an effort to convince lawmakers to strengthen the Voting Rights Act, Tuskegee.

Billie Jean Young (b. 1947) is an attorney, poet, and performer who is active in community affairs, women’s issues, and the arts. Young served as a community organizer for the Southwest Alabama Farmers Cooperative Association, as a land specialist for the Rural Land Alliance, and as executive director of the Southern Rural Women’s Network, an organization dedicated to political and social development in the South. She also served as chairperson of the Rural Development Leadership Network, which sponsors rural community development and training opportunities. Young is co-founder of the Branch Heights Dance Company and the Blackbelt Arts and Cultural Center, both in Alabama. She also wrote and performs a one-woman show on the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, the Civil Rights and political activist.

On verso: artist's credit stamp, manuscript title, manuscript date and newspaper stamp.

This object has the following keywords:

• Billie Jean Young
• Civil Rights Movements
• Female Portraits
• Injustice
• Marches
• Marches
• Racial Discrimination
• Southern Rural Women's Network
• Speeches
• Tuskegee
• Voting Rights
• Voting Rights Act

• Image Dimensions: 7 7/16 x 9 1/2 in. (18.89 x 24.13 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 8 x 9 15/16 in. (20.32 x 25.24 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen