<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: Previously published on Religion News Service on January 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Soloists Beverly Crawford, center left, and Zacardi Cortez, center right, perform \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d with the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston. (Video screen grab courtesy of NEWorks Productions)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n (RNS) \u2014 Composer Nolan Williams Jr. has long combined faith, culture and the arts in his productions on stage and screen, often centering on African American life. Now, he has created the \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d project to focus on the history of and continuing advocacy for voting rights.<\/p>\n The song he composed by the same name debuted via a\u00a0video\u00a0ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 19), and will be incorporated into the worship services at churches across the country during Black History Month in February.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are shifting from voter participation to civic engagement and really shining a spotlight on the Voting Rights Act and the history that led to the Voting Rights Act,\u201d Williams told Religion News Service in an interview, describing the law that has\u00a0lost some of its key provisions\u00a0since a 2013 Supreme Court decision. \u201cWe have seen the impact of that and the number of precincts that have been closed or the kinds of voter ID laws that have been enacted. \u2026 States that had a history of discrimination no longer have to answer to anyone before they make any changes in their voting procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams, 56, is the founder of NEWorks Productions, a music and arts production company, and the chief music editor of the African American Heritage Hymnal. The song \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d is the next part of NEWorks\u2019 Freedom Advances campaign, whose \u201cRise Up & Fight\u201d pro-voting animation music video earned him a Best Director award at the 2025 Cannes Film Awards.<\/p>\n The social justice hymn calls for the kinds of resistance and protest that King declared as the final\u00a0voting rights march from Selma\u00a0in 1965 concluded at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery,\u00a0saying, \u201cThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\u201d<\/p>\n The music video blends archival footage of civil rights marchers \u2014 showing the historic signs they carried and headlines they prompted \u2014 with a recording of the song by two soloists, Grammy Award-nominated artists Zacardi Cortez and Beverly Crawford, and the 130-voice Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir from Houston. The a cappella performance captures the sounds of hands and feet being used as instruments to undergird the song\u2019s lyrics, reminiscent of the anthems of the 1960s.<\/p>\n The refrain begins:<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, Oh, Oh, Selma has taught us how to persist, resist.<\/em><\/p>\n Selma has taught us how to protest, endure.<\/em><\/p>\n Selma has taught us how to fight hate, agitate,<\/em><\/p>\n Until the arc bends our way \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n As the nation marks not only the King holiday but, in February, the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, which began in 1926 as Negro History Week, Williams thought the hymn could be a way to collectively hear from Black churches again. He noted that recent social and racial justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter, began outside of church walls, a shift from the Civil Rights Movement\u2019s closer connections to churches.<\/p>\n RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0An interfaith group\u2019s 1950s MLK comic book remains a prominent nonviolence teaching tool\u00a0<\/p>\n Nolan Williams Jr., left, speaks with choristers while filming the \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d project at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston. (Photo by Alma Hicks, courtesy of NEWorks Productions)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the roots are in terms of social protest, and it\u2019s important to make that connection,\u201d said Williams, who is the son of a Baptist pastor. \u201cBut this project is not exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n The list of dozens of churches that have indicated they will perform the song during Black History Month includes Black churches of a range of sizes and locations, in addition to other churches, such as the Arlington Church of the Brethren in Virginia. Those that registered to incorporate the song on the NEWorks website receive resources, including sheet music, to help them prepare to sing the hymn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rev. Jacqueline A. Thompson, senior pastor of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California, said her church\u2019s Unity Choir plans to open its Black history commemoration by singing \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d during its morning worship service on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a deep irony in celebrating 250 years of American democracy while simultaneously witnessing efforts to erase Black history, restrict voting access, and the narrowing of the story we tell about who belongs,\u201d Thompson, who also is the second-vice president of the\u00a0Progressive National Baptist Convention, a historically Black denomination, told RNS via email. \u201cThis project is a reminder that remembrance comes with responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Promotional poster for the new hymn \u201cJust Like Selma.\u201d (Image courtesy of NEWorks Productions)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The Rev. Matt Rittle, pastor of Arlington Church of the Brethren, considered a peace church, said he hopes his mostly white congregation that usually gathers 25 to 40 people on Sunday will sing \u201cJust Like Selma,\u201d after congregants began an email thread discussing it after seeing it in a denominational newsletter.<\/p>\n The video will also be featured in bicoastal events on the King holiday before the song\u2019s release in February on streaming platforms.<\/p>\n The video will be included in the annual \u201cLet Freedom Ring\u201d Martin Luther King Day\u00a0celebration and concert, which had long been a partnership between Georgetown University, Williams and the former John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This year, the event will be held at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Since the recently renamed Trump Kennedy Center\u00a0began being chaired\u00a0by President Donald Trump last February,\u00a0numerous artists have canceled\u00a0appearances.<\/p>\n Asked about the recent ending of his 15 years on the Kennedy Center\u2019s Community Advisory Board, Williams declined to comment.<\/p>\n Leon C. Lewis. (Photo courtesy of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A spokesperson for Georgetown said the new venue was \u201cchosen in part to contribute to a set of proactive steps to protect the university\u2019s financial health amid ongoing challenges.\u201d In a December update, the university\u2019s president attributed \u201cconsiderable financial uncertainty\u201d at the school to causes including higher utility costs and federal research award disruptions.<\/p>\n The \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d video will also be featured in a Martin Luther King Day service during the midwinter board meeting of the Progressive National Baptist Convention in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cMusic is essential to movements,\u201d said the Rev. David Peoples, president of the denomination, in a statement. \u201cAs the denominational home of Dr. King, PNBC is honored to collaborate to promote this timely addition to sacred music.\u201d<\/p>\n Leon C. Lewis, the minister of music at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, said the message of resilience in the song is as relevant as it was in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s why we were able to garner so much support from our choir members to participate in it, because we\u2019re still seeing the inequities in our states, in our world, in our cities,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly, the message still resonates even now in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n On the Sunday before the MLK Day events, Williams plans to return to Wheeler Avenue Baptist to conduct the choir for a premiere performance during its two worship services. They are expected to draw some 12,000 people over two services in the church\u2019s sanctuary and overflow rooms.<\/p>\n Williams declined to make predictions about how his new composition might endure, but he said it\u2019s the right moment for the song to be sung.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be reflecting the times, and that\u2019s not something that should just be in the streets \u2014 that\u2019s something that should also be in the pulpit, in the choir loft, in the pews,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have amazing artists now that create praise and worship music and gospel songs and all of that, \u2026 but a social justice hymn is not a common kind of thing, and it\u2019s timely.\u201d<\/p>\n This story has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0The road from Selma was paved with the blood of four unsung martyrs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (RNS) \u2014 The new song\u2019s composer thought it could be a way to again hear from Black churches, collectively, about civil rights. Editor\u2019s Note: Previously published on Religion News Service on January 15, 2026. Soloists Beverly Crawford, center left, and Zacardi Cortez, center right, perform \u201cJust Like Selma\u201d with the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5230,1631,292,1207,2673,374,3013,4650,1063,4997,5229],"class_list":{"0":"post-16727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-aims","9":"tag-black","10":"tag-churches","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-hymn","13":"tag-king","14":"tag-mark","15":"tag-month","16":"tag-project","17":"tag-recall","18":"tag-selma"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}