NEWorks Productions Announces New Hymn “Just Like Selma” Feat. Nolan Williams Jr., Zacardi Cortez, Beverly Crawford & The Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir | WATCH NEW VIDEO!
NEWorks Productions
Announces A Voters Mobilization Project and
Commemorates the 61st Anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’
JUST LIKE SELMA
Featuring Award-Winning Producer Nolan Williams Jr.,
Grammy Award Nominated Gospel Legends
Zacardi Cortez & Beverly Crawford
with the historic Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir
(March 3, 2026 – Washington, DC) — As civic leaders and social justice advocates from around the nation gather in Selma, Alabama from Thursday, March 5, through Sunday, March 8 to commemorate the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a powerful new anthem will be included in the programming.
Just Like Selma (NEWorks Productions/Red Alliance) is a stirring social-justice hymn composed by award-winning producer Nolan Williams, Jr., featuring Grammy-nominated Gospel artists Zacardi Cortez and Beverly Crawford, alongside the 130-voice Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir in Houston, TX. The song commemorates the historic 1965 Selma marches—where peaceful demonstrators were brutally attacked while demanding their constitutional right to vote—and honors how that moment of national reckoning helped inspire President Lyndon B. Johnson and the U.S. Congress to pass the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the a cappella hymn evokes the spirit and sound of traditional civil rights anthems while speaking directly to the urgent moral challenges of today.
The song also serves as a soundtrack for the Freedom Advances civic engagement initiative meant to bring awareness to the importance of voting historically and in the 2026 mid-term elections. More than 135 churches, chapels, choirs, and organizations—spanning 20 denominations and representing three-fourths of the United States — have joined the ‘Just Like Selma’ Hymn-sing Project and are using the song as a teaching tool. The project has further been endorsed by the 8.5 million-member National Baptist Convention, USA and the 2.5-million-member Progressive National Baptist Convention denomination that gave birth to the activism of trailblazers such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Just Like Selma is already receiving accolades, including: “Best Music Video” and “Best Sound Design” in the Touchstone Independent Film Festival (January 2026); “Best Director Music Video” in the Sweden Film Awards (January 2026); “Best Song” in the Top Shorts Film Festival (February 2026), and a ranking as one of the “15 Best Films” by the Los Angeles Film Awards (February 2026).
Producer/composer Williams will be amongst the thousands of persons attending the Selma “Bridge Crossing” Jubilee this week, themed “All Boots on the Ground.” According to Williams, “The struggle for voting rights that defined Selma six decades ago is not ancient history—it’s a present reality. As new generations face renewed battles over democracy, access, and equality, Just Like Selma reminds us that the courage and strategy of those American patriots who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge remain urgently relevant. We stand at a crossroads once again, and the time to unite and act is now.”
For partnerships, screenings, hymn sings, or campaign participation:
📧 Email: projects@neworksproductions.com
🌐 Website: Just Like Selma
The full schedule of 61st Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee can be accessed here.
NEWorks Productions is a leading producer of inspirational arts projects ranging from film projects and theatrical productions to concert programming and educational initiatives. Since its founding in 2003, the Washington, DC-based firm has successfully produced multi-disciplinary civic projects that include I Have a Right to Vote, Liberty Unplugged and West Side/South Side.
An award-winning producer, multi-hyphenate creative, inaugural Kennedy center Social Practice Resident (2019-24), and founding CEO of NEWorks Productions, Nolan Williams, Jr. has dedicated his career to illuminating civil rights, social justice, and cultural identity through the arts. From 2004-2025, he produced Let Freedom Ring, an annual MLK celebration hosted by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. that featured guest artists such as Aretha Franklin, Leslie Odom Jr., Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Smokey Robinson, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Natalie Cole, among others. Williams is the chief music editor of the African American Heritage Hymnal (GIA Publications) which has sold over half a million copies worldwide. Last year, Williams’ short film, Rise Up & Fight, earned him the 2025 Cannes Film Awards prize for Best Director, Animated Music Video.
Gwendolyn Quinn Public Relations/Capital Entertainment