Honolulu exhibit highlights Hawaii ties to Selma marches, King photos

A new exhibit at the Hawaii State Capitol put Martin Luther King Jr. in a flower lei, a visual reminder that Hawaii residents traveled to Selma in 1965 to stand with the marchers. The display opened June 30 and runs through July 7, with 28 photographs donated by Jeannine Herron, the widow of civil-rights photographer Matt Herron.

The Hawaii State Archives says the images document a five-member Hawaii delegation and a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter who went to Alabama to join the Selma-to-Montgomery marches after Bloody Sunday. The participants identified in the collection are Nona (Springel) Ferdon, Glenn Izutsu, Robert Browne, Charles Campbell, Linus Pauling, Jr., and reporter Tomi (Kaizawa) Knaefler. All but Knaefler have died. During the march, the Hawaii delegation shared 48 lei, donated by Reverend Abraham Akaka, a friend of Dr. King, with fellow participants.

The photographs show King wearing the lei, tying Hawaii directly to one of the defining moments of the civil-rights era. The marches helped drive passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which broke down barriers that had long kept Black Americans from voting in the Deep South. One known banner from the march read, “Hawaii Knows Integration Works,” a line that captured how the state’s civil-rights supporters framed their presence in Alabama.

The exhibit also puts family memory at the center of the history. Steven Springel stood before a photograph of his mother, Nona (Springel) Ferdon, and said he was nearly 7 when she went to Selma as a graduate student and divorced mother of two. He later learned what the trip meant. Ferdon recalled that the delegation moved on short notice and went to the airport around 5 p.m. to fly to Alabama, underscoring how quickly the support from Hawaii came together.

Acting Lieutenant Governor Keith Regan said the lei symbolized “solidarity, hope, and a shared commitment to human dignity.” State Archivist Adam Jansen said the message from Hawaii to Selma was that “justice knows no distance and unity has the power to change history,” adding that he was glad the marchers carried signs reading “We’re from Hawaii.”