Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change is a 2007 documentary that examines the stories and experiences of Catholic sisters who marched for voting rights alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama in 1965.
Three Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet participated in the march: Rosemary Flanigan (formerly Sister Thomas Marguerite), Barbara Moore (formerly Sister Anne Benedict) and Roberta Schmidt (formerly Sister Ernest Marie). They were subsequently interviewed for the film along with Catholic sisters from other orders and additional people involved in the marches.
Filmmaker Jayarsi Hart eventually sent her research notes and unedited video footage from the documentary to the archives at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2023, Avila transferred this amazing collection of firsthand accounts to the Carondelet Consolidated Archives. This is the story of how that collection moved here, how it developed into its own website and why it’s an important collection to preserve.
In 2023, Avila University decided to transfer the Sisters of Selma collection from its archives to another, as of yet unnamed, repository. Upon learning of this, I reached out to Carol Coburn, Director of the CSJ Center for Heritage at Avila University, to campaign for the transfer of the documentary materials to the Carondelet Consolidated Archives. Carol Coburn was a consultant on the film and has worked closely with director Hart since 2003. This initial communication led to dozens of phone calls and zoom meetings between Carol Coburn, Jayasri Hart and myself. Additionally, I shared photos and videos of our archival space at the Carondelet Motherhouse to give them a sense of what our facility looked like and the environmental measures in place, such as temperature and humidity control which help prolong the life of materials.
Hart felt strongly that the new repository should have the ability to host a website dedicated to the film and its archives, a place where the general public could learn more about voting rights, social justice and the individuals featured in the film. I was already working on a proposal to expand our staff with the addition of a digital archivist, someone who would not only collect, archive and preserve our fast-growing digital file collection, but could also participate in digitization efforts and design an online digital archive for searching/viewing materials.
By November 2023, and with Jayasri Hart’s blessing, I drafted a Deed of Gift agreement between the Carondelet Consolidated Archives and Avila University. The Deed was signed by all parties in December 2023. Since the collection is relatively small (about 8 boxes and some digital materials on an external hard drive) and to save money on shipping costs, Carol Coburn and I met midway between Kansas City and St. Louis in Columbia, Missouri, for the physical transfer. The materials were added to our archival storage room that very afternoon.
The congregation approved the new digital archivist position and Sara Kopmann was hired in November 2024. Her first assignment was to create a stand-alone educational website to showcase the film, its archives and a special screening of the film planned for March 2025, the 60th anniversary of the voting rights marches. The new website, SistersofSelma.org, was unveiled at the public event and steadily draws hundreds of visitors every month where they can watch the documentary and other clips not included in the final cut of the film, listen to KMOX radio interviews conducted with Sisters Rosemary Flanigan and Roberta Schmidt when they returned from Selma in 1965 and read some of the stories that came out of the 1965 Selma voting rights marches. New content is added to the website on a regular basis. Future plans include expanding awareness and visibility through various social media platforms.
Archives of religious sisters are important not only because they preserve the history and stories of their communities but also because of the archive’s social and cultural importance in the broader context of United States history. The Sisters of Selma collection documents marginalized communities, activism, social justice and political movements that students and scholars can learn from. In addition to making some of the archival content available online, the Carondelet Consolidated Archives also preserves the original recordings and paperwork, which are available for researchers to use in person in the archives. The collection is stored in a temperature and humidity-controlled room to ensure these important materials will be available to use for generations to come.
