‘Freedom baby,’ AHS grad to sign books, speak to CHS Thursday

Published 1:11 am Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Andalusia High School graduate Kathryn Galloway James will sign her new book here Thursday afternoon, and talk about it with the Covington Historical Society on Thursday night.

Kathryn Galloway James

Her book, “From the Eyes of the Freedom Baby,” is based on the life of a civil rights movement leader and minister of multiple churches, her father, George Galloway.

The synopsis of the book reads, “One African American minister is about to take an extraordinary step through life with moving to a small town in the Jim Crow territory of Selma, Alabama, in 1954. He was an ordained minister of music and assigned to a church in Selma, Alabama, not knowing that with the freedom he had in Washington, DC, he would be facing a hard road of racism, participating in the civil rights movement. He could not possibly have foreseen that protesting in support of basic human dignity would culminate into one of the most heartrending civil wars of American history. He would later bring into all of these fights a wife and six children to face these horrible times and place them at risks with him. Joining in were other men and women who were determined to start a movement of their own that would forever change the town of Selma, Alabama.”

The Rev. George Galloway organized the youth of Hudson High School to march over the bridge in 1965, and they were attacked by troopers and horses and dogs, Galloway told The Selma Sun. His wife, Shirley, was pregnant with Kathryn when she marched across the bridge, then ran back for safety when attacked. That was why Rev. Galloway called his daughter “Freedom Baby.”

Kathryn Galloway graduated from Andalusia High School in 1984, and was a a member of the Bulldog Marching Band and the AHS Chorus. She went on to attend Howard University in Washington. She grew up singing with her large family of musicians since her father was minister of music at the Bethel A.M.E. Church.

Galloway will sign books at the Andalusia Public Library  from 3 until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 24.

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, she will present a program to the Covington Historical Society in the Charles Dixon Memorial Room. The public is cordially invited to attend both of these events.