Last Spring, Dianne Harris received a strange correspondence through her Facebook page – National Geographic writer Glynn Pogue was planning to travel the Civil Rights Trail, from Birmingham to Selma and on to Montgomery, and wanted Harris to act as her guide through the Queen City.

Pogue was interested in writing a story for the publication’s “Traveler” edition.

“I was very excited,” Harris said. “I’ve read some National Geographic magazines, but I wasn’t familiar with the Traveler edition.”

Harris, a 1965 Foot Soldier, was the perfect guide for Pogue – Harris was present for Bloody Sunday, the site of which she fled after hearing reports of violence and smelling the tear gas emanating from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and was there a week later when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery.

Harris met Pogue and her father at Brown Chapel AME Church and led the writer on a tour of Selma. Among the stops on the duo’s trip were the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Old Live Oak Cemetery and other historic markers throughout the city.

Pogue’s father kept referring to the historic landmarks as “hallowed ground.”

“It was a very powerful moment,” Harris said. “I don’t know how she found me, but I’m glad she did.

Along with giving the young writer a tour of the city, Harris helped her find a place to stay the night and shared breakfast with her and her father the following morning at The Downtowner before they departed for Montgomery.

Pogue’s story of her experiences along the Civil Rights Trail, including her time in Selma with Harris, will be included in the February/March 2019 edition of National Geographic’s Traveler magazine.