'The Right to Dream' Performance Highlights Civil Rights Struggle

Performance group Living Voices will present "The Right to Dream" at 6 p.m. Feb. 5 at Crossroads Community Center, as part of Black History Month.

The Right to Dream is a story about the struggle and sacrifice for civil rights in America. Local performers recreate a student's coming of age as an African American in Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s.

According to Living Voices' website:

The Right to Dream is told either from the point of view of a young woman (Ruby) or a young man (Raymond). Ruby/Raymond Hollis is a young African American growing up in a small town in Mississippi on the brink of the American Civil Rights movement, the child of a World War II African American soldier and a domestic worker who is respected in their small Mississippi town. 

Early on, Raymond/Ruby feels and sees the daily impact of racism. As a child, her/his best friend is a young white neighbor to the house where her/his mother works—until they are separated and forbidden to see each other. Ruby/Raymond is then introduced to leaders like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., showing him/her that something different may be possible for blacks in America. 

Dedicated to joining these leaders, Raymond/Ruby receives a scholarship to attend Tougaloo College. Raymond/Ruby begins his/her involvement in the movement when s/he leads a sit-in at a local lunch counter. When friends are hurt, and civil rights workers are killed, Ruby's/Raymond's dedication to creating an equal society is tested. But s/he becomes a part of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and is a participant in the voter registration drive, the March on Washington, Freedom Summer and the March from Selma to Montgomery.

Ruby/Raymond and the civil rights workers are rewarded with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act—but Ruby/Raymond is dedicated to continuing the fight against racism and raising America above intolerance.

This program illuminates the issues of civil rights, leading audiences to understand how the fight against prejudice has shaped our history. The performance will be followed by a facilitated discussion.

The show is being presented by the King County Library System and the City of Bellevue Cultural Diversity Program.

If you go

Presented by Living Voices

The Right to Dream – Civil Rights Presentation

Feb. 5, 6 pm

Crossroads Community Center

16000 NE 10th St.

Bellevue, WA 98008

Phone: 425-452-4874