When the family of F.D. Reese got to Selma the day after an EF-2 tornado struck the city, one of the first things they did was check on the Reese family home– the former longtime residence of the late civil rights leader and his wife, Alline.

Fortunately, the white two-story house at the intersection of Marie Foster Street and Eugene Avenue was left unscathed. But less than half a mile up the street, the storms left destruction in their wake. Ebenezer Baptist Church, the house of worship where Reese presided for more than 50 years before passing the baton to James Perkins Jr., suffered damage to its roof and steeple. The tornado dealt a more severe blow to the houses on the streets nearby and in the surrounding areas where many of Ebenezer’s parishioners live.

Earlier this month Selma Mayor James Perkins said the storm ultimately destroyed about 40% of the city’s neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of residents. Ahead of President Biden’s visit to Selma on Sunday, March 5 to commemorate the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Perkins said about 70% of the debris from the storms has been cleaned up.

Crews and residents in Selma were still working to clear remaining debris and repair property in the city during the weekend commemoration of Bloody Sunday. The tornado had mostly avoided the parts of the city where the commemoration events are held, such as the areas near the Edmund Pettus Bridge and historical sites like Brown Chapel A.M.E. But minutes away, damaged cars with broken windows filled lots with scrap metal and debris. Other parts of Selma still had uprooted trees, fallen limbs, and remains from destroyed buildings. Yellow caution tape lined the steps of The Reformed Presbyterian Church — the tornado had leveled the sanctuary down to its brick foundation.

As parishioners left the Free Thinkers Worship Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church that Sunday, the area, like many other parts of the city, still had visible remnants of the January storms. Fallen tree limbs still impaled some houses. Decimated homes with destroyed roofs were covered in blue tarp, and people worked to remove fallen beams and clear debris with saws.

Alan Reese, the grandson of F.D. and Alline Reese, remembers the feeling of seeing the devastation in Selma.

“I’ve never seen nothing like it. I’ve never seen nothing like that personally. And it really was devastating, man. You know, I’ll never forget when I got to Selma that Friday morning. I saw one individual sitting on a concrete block. And the house was just totally gone,” said Reese. “He had the look of… the look on his face as if ‘there’s no hope.’ And that really hurt my feelings because he lost everything. And that was in Smokey City and it was just heartbreaking.”

A minister and educator, Rev. F.D. Reese dedicated most of his life to improving the welfare of Selma’s citizens. He was an unwavering advocate for teachers. As president of the Selma Teachers Association during the 1960s, he fought for Black female teachers to get maternity leave. Reese was also president of the Dallas County Voters League and one of Selma’s “Courageous Eight,” a group of activists who continued to hold meetings to discuss protesting voting injustices, even after a court injunction banned marches and meetings. Reese, Amelia Boynton-Robinson, Ulysses Blackmon, Ernest Doyle, Marie Foster, James Gildersleeve, Rev. J.D. Hunter, and Rev. Henry Shannon were instrumental in bringing members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to Selma to help lead protests against voter discrimination.

Reese was also one of Selma’s first Black city council members and he was instrumental in adding the first Black men to the city’s police and sheriff departments. Reese lost his bid for mayor of Selma in 1984, but he later served as the campaign manager for James Perkins Jr., who became the city’s first African American mayor in 2000. A lifelong educator, Reese later became an administrator where he continued to mentor blooming educators as the principal of Selma High School. F.D. Reese died in 2018.

Known as a devoted servant leader, Reese chose to stay in Selma to focus on local politics and improving the quality of life for the city’s black residents, rather than working in other states or in national politics.

In the days after the storm, Ebenezer’s staff and parishioners banded together to give out food and water to the community. They packed bagged lunches. Ebenezer hosted representatives from FEMA as they took applications for assistance from the community and staff from Spire Inc. as they served hot meals. The church parking lot was the ground for mobile marketplaces where people could access toiletries and paper towels. The actions of service, Reese said, were in keeping with the late minister’s legacy.

Alan Reese says if his grandfather was alive and still helming the pulpit at Ebenezer, he would make sure people knew his family and church were a refuge at a time of need. The church would have been ground zero– the place where people could come brush their teeth, wash their faces, and clean themselves up.

“There’s something about when you’re going through something, if I can just clean myself up, I’d feel better,” said Alan. “People would have said ‘I know I can go to Ebenezer. Or I know I can go to the church to get some help and some assistance.’ And I know that much.”

He says the late minister would have let the community know that his door was always open.

“One thing I know my grandfather would have done is open his home. Open the home, open the church,” said Reese.

That’s why this year, the Reese family decided the events commemorating the third annual F.D. Reese Day will be a day of service. The official observance of F.D. Reese day is March 21, a nod to two significant dates in 1965– the beginning of the first successful march from Selma to Montgomery and the day Rev. F.D. Reese accepted his pastoral role as minister of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.

This year, the Reeses will celebrate F.D. Reese Day today, Sunday, March 19 with a day of service and a block party for the community. The F.D. Reese Foundation and the organization Salute Selma will host an afternoon of giveaways, food, and free tours of the F.D. Reese family home.

In a recent episode of their podcast The Lineage, Alan’s brother Marvin Reese said the right way to honor the spirit of F.D. Reese this year is to serve.

“This is our way of giving back to the community, which we love to do,” said Marvin Reese.

“Everyone knows the tornado has affected Selma. So, what we didn’t want to do is be disingenuous and come with a celebration. Because we are a community. And the F.D. Reese Foundation is a community-driven organization.”

The inaugural F.D. Reese Day was in 2021. Ward 4 councilwoman Leisa James led the effort, galvanized by a Facebook post from community leader and organizer Hatwatha McGhee. Learning more about F.D. Reese’s legacy of work in Selma through friends and family McGhee, who comes from a family of activists, realized that in the history of the voting rights movement, the late civil rights leader had been widely overlooked.

“I’ll tell you, and this is just my slogan. ‘If it was not for him, where would we be?’” McGhee told AL.com in an interview in 2021. “Dr. Reese just wasn’t voting rights. Dr. Reese paved the way for our educators. Paved the way so that Black people could have a job at Walmart. Walmart in Selma never hired black people. But Dr. Reese paved that way. For Black police officers and firefighters.”

This past Jubilee weekend, the family of the late F.D. Reese accepted two honors on his behalf. On March 3, the NAACP Alabama State Conference honored the members of the Courageous Eight with the Trail Blazer Award. The next day, Valerie Harris, the daughter of F.D. Reese, accepted a plaque honoring her father during the opening celebration of Foot Soliders Park. The park, started by voting rights foot solider and community leader JoAnne Bland, is a new outdoor space devoted to beautifying Selma for the youth and teaching them the legacies of voting and civil rights history.

Family, friends, and fellow activists of Rev. F.D. Reese have long known Reese was a humble man who never cared much about accolades.

Still, Alan Reese says the recognitions are an honor.

“It’s humbling. We feel honored that people would take the time out to honor my grandfather and the other individuals that contributed to the movement. Sometimes they didn’t get the recognition that nationally, that they should,” said Alan Reese. “And so, it’s a real honor man. It’s pleasing to receive that on my grandfather’s behalf.”

And as people attend the block party and observe the official F.D. Reese Day this year, Alan Reese and his family are always grateful to the women who catalyzed the effort.

“And I’d always like to thank Hawatha McGee for leading that charge. We always really appreciate her and councilwoman Leisa James,” said Reese. “We can’t thank them enough for leading that charge for F.D. Reese Day. And we’re looking for it to grow every year.”