"FIRST LADY OF RADIO"

Roberta Franklin was a seasoned, social justice organizer living in Montgomery Alabama. Through her efforts, Roberta has garnered broad-based support from the general public and and national officials.

Several years ago, Roberta Franklin began to host a local radio talk show creating public conversations about hidden prisons and the people incarcerated in them. Good citizens of Alabama began to insist on sentencing law and prison reform.

By attracting a growing public audience of listeners year after year, Roberta and her wide-open conversations on Let the Truth Shine Radio Show led to citizen mobilization. Former prisoners, loved ones of inmates and their community supporters continue to organize today.

Ms. Franklin was named a "Soros Justice Fellow" by the Open Society Institute in 2004 for her activism in Alabama and her work with FMI. She also received the Excellence in Journalistic Broadcasting Award from The International Bannister Foundation, Critical Resistance South, Southern Center for Human Rights and the Patrick Crusade at the first Family Members of Inmates Convention in 2003.

Hosting meetings, marches and rallies that have drawn as many a two thousand participants, including notable political figures, Roberta Franklin founded and directs the Family and Friends of People Incarcerated, an organization that consists of relatives and friends of inmates throughout Alabama.

Roberta Franklin's call for a Million Family and Friends of Prisoners March on Washington D.C. on August 13, 2005 has been heard throughout the country.

Her relentless work for social justice brings Montgomery, Alabama another hard-won mark in the place of social justice history.

Ms. Franklin passed at her home on Saturday, January 5, 2013, surrounded by family friends.