SCLC had chosen to focus its efforts in Selma because they anticipated that the notorious brutality of local law enforcement under Sheriff Jim Clark would attract national attention and pressure President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to enact new national voting rights legislation.
Alabama state troopers swing nightsticks to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965 As several hundred marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin a protest march to Montgomery, state troopers assaulted the crowd with clubs and whips.AP. Push for Voting Rights Sparked Selma Protests.
Selma to Montgomery March. In his annual address to SCLC a few days later, King noted that “Montgomery led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960; Birmingham inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Selma produced the voting rights legislation of 1965” (King, 11 August 1965).
A federal marshal reads a court order halting a planned voter registration protest march at Selma, Alabama, March 9, 1965. The order was read after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led about 2,000 persons from a church to a bridge over the Alabama River. The march in Selma also inspired other grassroots movements.
State troopers and county possemen attacked the unarmed marchers with billy clubs and tear gas after they passed over the county line, and the event became known as Bloody Sunday. Law enforcement beat Boynton unconscious, and the media publicized worldwide a picture of her lying wounded on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
On March 7, 1965, when then-25-year-old activist John Lewis led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama and faced brutal attacks by oncoming state troopers, footage of the violence collectively shocked the nation and galvanized the fight against racial injustice.
Fifty years ago, on March 7, 1965, hundreds of people gathered in Selma, Alabama to march to the capital city of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote — even in the face of a segregationist system that wanted to make it impossible.
As many as 25,000 people participated in the roughly 50-mile (80-km) march. Together, these events became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Selma is probably best known as the site of the infamous "Bloody Sunday" attack on civil rights marchers at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, and the subsequent Selma-to-Montgomery March. In 2000, the city elected its first African American mayor, marking a positive change from those turbulent days.
three marchesThe Selma Marches were a series of three marches that took place in 1965 between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama. These marches were organized to protest the blocking of Black Americans' right to vote by the systematic racist structure of the Jim Crow South.
What happened in Selma after Bloody Sunday made national news? Thousands of clergymen and Christian people came to Selma to support the civil rights activists. How did the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson affect the campaign? The whole march from Selma to Montgomery was inspired by his death.
Which of these statements describes the effects of the Selma marches? They created widespread national sympathy for the civil rights cause.
On March 17, 1965, even as the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers fought for the right to carry out their protest, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, calling for federal voting rights legislation to protect African Americans from barriers that prevented them from voting.
In March 1965, thousands of people held a series of marches in the U.S. state of Alabama in an effort to get that right back. Their march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital, was a success, leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.
On March 7, 1965 around 600 people crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an attempt to begin the Selma to Montgomery march. State troopers violently attacked the peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to stop the march for voting rights.
Selma March, also called Selma to Montgomery March, political march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery, that occurred March 21–25, 1965. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the march was the culminating event of several tumultuous weeks during which demonstrators twice attempted to march but were stopped, ...
Led by Hosea Williams, one of King’s SCLC lieutenants, and Lewis, some 600 demonstrators walked, two by two, the six blocks to the Edmund Pettus Bridge that crossed the Alabama River and led out of Selma.
Not only was the registration office open just two days per month, but cumbersome four-page forms and arbitrarily applied literacy tests were used to deter and prevent African Americans from obtaining the vote. In late 1964, as SNCC intensified its registration campaign in response to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, local law enforcement—led by the county’s militant segregationist sheriff, Jim Clark (who wore a button that read “Never!”)—resisted with increasing violence (including the use of electric cattle prods against demonstrators). When the Dallas County Voters League, the principal local civil rights organization, requested help from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma’s recently elected mayor, Joseph Smitherman, sought to prevent local law-enforcement officers from employing violence, fearing that bad publicity would work against his attempt to lure new industry to Selma.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the SCLC went to court in an attempt to prevent Wallace and the state from intervening again in the demonstration. While U.S. District Court Judge Frank Johnson, Jr., agreed to hear the petition, he also issued a restraining order forbidding any further demonstrations in the interim.
At the east end of the bridge, the demonstrators encountered a force of sheriff’s deputies, deputized “possemen” (some on horseback), and dozens of state troopers. The marchers were told that they had two minutes to disperse. Williams asked to speak with the officer who had given the command.
By early February 1965, with the SCLC’s organizing efforts in full swing, police violence had escalated and at least 2,000 demonstrators had been jailed in Dallas county.
Ultimately, they allowed their members to participate in the march as individuals, led by SNCC chairman John Lewis.
Thousands march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge along with members of the cast of the movie "Selma" in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Sean Gardner / Getty Images.
In a letter written to The New York Times in February 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr . wrote: "This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.”. A little over a month later, the march from Selma to Montgomery took place.
Marches cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River in Selma on Sunday during the annual re-enactment of the 'Bloody Sunday' demonstration in March 1965. Albert Cesare / AP. One hundred years earlier, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution granted equal rights to all citizens, yet Jim Crow laws maintained segregation ...
She opened her Selma home to the SCLC as a place to discuss and plan the march that became known as "Bloody Sunday.". Amelia Boynton is carried and another injured man tended to after they were hurt when state police broke up a demonstration march in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965.
Alabama state troopers swing nightsticks to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama, March 7 , 1965 As several hundred marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge to begin a protest march to Montgomery, state troopers assaulted the crowd with clubs and whips.
Less well-known is Jimmie Lee Jackson — the man whose death set the demonstrations in motion. A marcher holds a poster of Jimmie Lee Jackson , a civil rights activist who was beaten and shot by Alabama State troopers in 1965, during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march on March 8, 2015 in Selma, Alabama.
Jimmie Lee Jackson: The Inspiration for the March. One of the first images that comes to mind when Selma is mentioned is likely Dr. Martin Luther King marching hand in hand with dozens of civil rights advocates throughout the streets. Less well-known is Jimmie Lee Jackson — the man whose death set the demonstrations in motion.
On 15 March Johnson addressed Congress, identifying himself with the demonstrators in Selma in a televised address: “Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.
The campaign in Selma and nearby Marion, Alabama, progressed with mass arrests but little violence for the first month. That changed in February, however, when police attacks against nonviolent demonstrators increased. On the night of 18 February, Alabama state troopers joined local police breaking up an evening march in Marion.
SCLC had chosen to focus its efforts in Selma because they anticipated that the notorious brutality of local law enforcement under Sheriff Jim Clark would attract national attention and pressure President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to enact new national voting rights legislation.
On 25 March 1965, Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ...
Protected by hundreds of federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, the demonstrators covered between 7 to 17 miles per day. Camping at night in supporters’ yards, they were entertained by celebrities such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne.
The following day Selma demonstrators submitted a detailed march plan to Judge Johnson, who approved the demonstration and enjoined Governor Wallace and local law enforcement from harassing or threatening marchers. On 17 March Johnson submitted voting rights legislation to Congress. The federally sanctioned march left Selma on 21 March.
In the ensuing melee, a state trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church deacon from Marion, as he attempted to protect his mother from the trooper’s nightstick. Jackson died eight days later in a Selma hospital.
These marches were organized to protest the blocking of Black Americans' right to vote by the systematic racist structure of the Jim Crow South.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge, on the Selma to Montgomery Byway ( NAID 7722076) Two Minute Warning on Bloody Sunday ( NAID 16899041) The first march from Selma was led by Reverend C.T. Vivian to the courthouse in Marion, Alabama on February 18, 1965 to protest the arrest of DCVL member James Orange. On the way to the courthouse, Alabama state troopers ...
On the way to the courthouse, Alabama state troopers attacked the marchers, shooting Jimmie Lee Jackson in the process. Jackson died eight days later prompting James Bevel of SCLC to call for a march from Selma to Montgomery to speak with Governor George Wallace about Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death.
The second march began on Sunday March 7, led by SNCC chairman John Lewis and the Reverend Hosea Williams of SCLC. The march proceeded without any interruptions until the protesters arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were met with violence by Alabama law enforcement officials.
Because of the powerful impact of the marches in Selma, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was presented to Congress on March 17, 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law on August 6, 1965. Search the Catalog for Records relating to the Selma Marches.
In response, civil rights leaders planned to take their cause directly to Alabama Governor George Wallace on a 54-mile march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.
Sympathizers staged sit-ins, traffic blockades and demonstrations in solidarity with the voting rights marchers. Some even traveled to Selma where two days later King attempted another march but, to the dismay of some demonstrators, turned back when troopers again blocked the highway at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troopers watch as marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama as part of a civil rights march on March 9, 1965. Outrage at “Bloody Sunday” swept the country. Sympathizers staged sit-ins, traffic blockades and demonstrations in solidarity with the voting rights marchers.
Knowing a confrontation awaited, the marchers pressed on in a thin column down the bridge’s sidewalk until they stopped about 50 feet away from the authorities. “It would be detrimental to your safety to continue this march,” Major John Cloud called out from his bullhorn. “This is an unlawful assembly.
A wall of state troopers, wearing white helmets and slapping billy clubs in their hands, stretched across Route 80 at the base of the span.
Perhaps no place was Jim Crow’s grip tighter than in Dallas County, Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half of the population, yet accounted for just 2 percent of registered voters. For months, the efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register Black voters in the county seat of Selma had been thwarted.
As they began to cross the steel-arched bridge spanning the Alabama River, the marchers who gazed up could see the name of a Confederate general and reputed grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, Edmund Pettus, staring right back at them in big block letters emblazoned across the bridge’s crossbeam.
Lynda Lowery. Participants, some carrying American flags, marching in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Pettus, Peter, photographer; Library of Congress: LC-DIG-ppmsca-08102. Until 1965, counties in Alabama used preventive measures in order to prevent African-Americans from registering to vote.
On March 11, Rev. James Reeb, died from his injuries. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators.
The Reverend Jim MacDonell remembered the day in his oral history: And it took about an hour to get everybody lined up and start the march out of town because the Edmund Pettus Bridge is about a half mile out of town. And, of course, we walked across the bridge and over the top of the bridge and down the other side.
The First March: Bloody Sunday. Origins of the Selma to Montgomery Marches. nps. On March 7, approximately 600 non-violent protestors, the vast majority being African-American, departed from Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma with the intent on marching 54-miles to Montgomery, as a memorial to Jimmy Lee Jackson and to protest for voter's rights.
Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. This time they decided to turn back and not risk a violent confrontation. The Reverend Jim MacDonell remembered the day in his oral history:
On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Only this third march, which began on March 21, reached the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery.
The brutality that was displayed on this day was captured by the media; however, the media was held back as the protesters retreated, where the violence continued for some time. The attack caused outrage around the country, and March 7 became known as "Bloody Sunday".
March 21, 1965 - About 3,200 people march out of Selma for Montgomery under the protection of federal troops. They walk about 12 miles a day and sleep in fields at night. March 25, 1965 - The marchers reach the state capitol in Montgomery. The number of marchers grows to about 25,000.
It is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Selma to Montgomery.
March 19, 1965 - Wallace sends a telegram to President Johnson asking for help, saying that the state does not have enough troops and cannot bear the financial burden of calling up the Alabama National Guard.
Fowler was charged with murder in 2007 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2010. March 7 , 1965 - About 600 people begin a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Lewis and Hosea Williams.
March 9, 1965 - President Lyndon Johnson speaks out against the violence in Selma and urges both sides to respect the law. March 9, 1965 - Unitarian Universalist minister James Reeb, in Selma to join marchers, is attacked by a group of white men and beaten. He dies of his injuries two days later.
Throughout March of 1965, a group of demonstrators faced violence as they attempted to march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand the right to vote for black people. One of the pivotal days was March 7, when 17 people were hospitalized and dozens more injured by police, including future Congressman John Lewis who suffered ...
In 1965, three protest marches were held in the United States to fight for voting rights for black people. These marches were the Selma to Montgomery marches, and nonviolent activists organized them to shed light on all of the racial injustices in American society.
The marches started in Selma, Alabama, and went all the way to Montgomery, the state capital. Segregation was rampant in the South during this time, and something had to be done. Black people did not have the same rights as white people, and these peaceful marches were organized to try and obtain them. However, even if these marches were peaceful, ...
These three men answered Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to attend the second march to combat racial inequality. Unfortunately, it did not end well for James Reeb. Four white men attacked them, one of whom was carrying a club, who started shouting racial slurs at them.
She drove to Selma all by herself, but unfortunately, it did not end well for her. Right after the third march concluded, she was shot by Ku Klux Klansmen who were driving past the protesters. They saw her in a car with a black man whom she was driving home after the protests and started shooting at them.
Finally, the fourth victim of the Selma to Montgomery marches was Jonathan Daniels, a white man that sacrificed his life to save Ruby Sales, his friend, and a black woman. They were both in prison for protesting because white plantation owners were exploiting their black workers, and on the day they were released, ...
Jimmie Lee Jackson was a baptist deacon whose death was the catalyst that gave birth to the marches. He was 26 years old, and he was a deacon in a Baptist church in Marion, Alabama. He was an activist who tried registering to vote several times, and during a peaceful protest, the police attacked him. He did not do anything, but was still chased by ...