The play “JimmyLee,” which tells the story of civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, will open tonight at Judson College in Marion.

Jackson, from Marion, lost his life in 1965 while participating in a peaceful voting rights march. The unarmed Jackson was beaten by state troopers and shot. He died eight days later. His death helped inspire the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Judson College Professor Dr. Billie Jean Young, who wrote “JimmyLee,” said it is important to honor trailblazers of the civil rights movement.

“It is the very least we can do to remember those who paved a way for us, sometimes with their blood and even death, like Jimmie Lee Jackson. If we don’t commemorate them, how will our children know their own history? If we don’t remember them, who will?” Young said.

The play will feature third-time participant Alvin Wayne Owens, a native of Selma. Owens spent 28 years working in the Dallas County School System.

“It has been a great delight working with the cast in the production of ‘JimmyLee.’ I am excited to be a part of the production again. We can show black people how the struggle was in the 1960s in order to get civil rights,” Owens said.

He plays two characters in the play, a preacher and a principal.

Other cast members include Marion native Jonathan Carlisle, a Morehouse College junior, in the role of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Atlanta native Jamida Orange in the role of her father the Rev. James Orange.

The play will be shown four times. There will be a performance Thursday during the day for Judson students. The college will also host evening performance Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the cast will come to Selma and perform at the School of Discovery at 6 p.m.

The general admission for all 6 p.m. showings will be $10.

“We’ve had good audiences every year. We had overflow audiences at the Jubilee performances for the last two years,” Young said.

Young has 33 years of experience in producing black history plays.

She is also the author, director and actor for the award winning one-woman show “Fannie Lou Hamer: This Little Light,” a tribute to the Mississippi sharecropper who was mercilessly beaten in a Mississippi jail and run away from her home in 1963 for her participation in the civil rights movement.

For ticket information for “JimmyLee,” Young can be reached at (334) 683-5288 or (334) 683-2100.