United States, Alabama, 32.75041, -86.75026United States, Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis, 35.14953, -90.04898Sims, Bernice, 1926-1996Painting by Bernice Sims.Memory painter Bernice Sims was born in southern Alabama, and has lived there all of her life. It was not until she had raised her own six children that she decided to finish high school, and earned her high school diploma at the age of 52. Class field trips to museums re-awakened her childhood interest in painting. She began painting again, rendering colorful scenes of the farm life, church activities, and community gatherings of her youth. Sims is best known for her haunting depictions of the struggle for civil rights. In 2005, her work The Crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma was selected as one of the images to be included in the United States Postal Service stamp series To Form a More Perfect Union.Purchase of the Tubman African American Museum.image/jpeghttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Folk art--United StatesAfrican American folk art--United StatesAfrican American painting--United StatesFolk art--AlabamaAfrican American folk art--AlabamaAfrican American painting--AlabamaCivil rights demonstrationsCivil rights workers--Tennessee--MemphisCivil rights workersAfrican American civil rights workers--Tennessee--MemphisAfrican American civil rights workersPolice--Tennessee--MemphisPoliceFire hoseDog attacksTruncheonsKing, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968--AssassinationCivil rights memory paintingStillImage