Fikes, Betty Mae, 1948-

Bettie Mae Fikes (born 1948), also known as The Voice of Selma,[1] is an American singer and civil rights activist.

Fikes singing "This Little Light of Mine" in Selma, Alabama, in 2019.
Life
Born in Selma, Alabama in 1948, she began singing at the age of four.[2] Fikes was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers,[3] and became known as "the Voice of Selma".[4] She was jailed as a teenager in 1963 for her participation in a Selma protest and was also involved in Bloody Sunday in 1965.[5] Her new lyrics for "This Little Light of Mine" and other songs became particularly known.[citation needed] She performed at both the 1964 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Democratic National Convention.[citation needed] In 2020, she sang at the funeral services for John Lewis, which she indicated might be her final public performance.[6]