1965 : SELMA TO MONTGOMERY MARCH BEGINS:
In the name of African-American voting rights, 3,200 civil rights
demonstrators, led by Martin Luther King Jr., begin a historic march
from Selma, Alabama, to the State Capitol at Montgomery. U.S. Army and
National Guard troops were on hand to provide safe passage for the
"Alabama Freedom March," which twice had been turned back by Alabama
state police at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In 1965, King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
decided to make the small town of Selma the focus of their drive to
win voting rights for African Americans in the South. Alabama's
governor, George Wallace, was a vocal opponent of the African-American
civil rights movement, and local authorities in Selma had consistently
thwarted efforts by the Dallas County Voters League and the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register local blacks.
King had won the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace, and the world's eyes
turned to Selma after his arrival there in January 1965. He launched a
series of peaceful protests, and by mid-February thousands of
protesters in the Selma area had spent time in jail, including King
himself.
On February 18, a group of white segregationists attacked some
peaceful marchers in the nearby town of Marion. Jimmie Lee Jackson, an
African-American demonstrator, was fatally wounded in the melee. After
he died, King and the SCLC planned a massive march from Selma to
Montgomery. Although Governor Wallace promised to prevent it from
going forward, on March 7 some 500 demonstrators, led by SCLC leader
Hosea Williams and SNCC leader John Lewis, began the 54-mile march to
the state capital. After crossing Pettus Bridge, they were met by
Alabama state troopers and posse men who attacked them with
nightsticks, tear gas, and whips after they refused to turn back.
Several of the protesters were severely beaten, and others ran for
their lives. The incident was captured on national television and
outraged many Americans. Hundreds of ministers, priests, and rabbis
headed to Selma to join the voting rights campaign. King, who was in
Atlanta at the time, promised to return to Selma immediately and lead
another attempt.
On March 9, King led 1,500 marchers, black and white, across Edmund
Pettus Bridge but found Highway 80 blocked again by state troopers.
King paused the marchers and led them in prayer, whereupon the
troopers stepped aside. King then turned the protesters around,
believing that the troopers were trying to create an opportunity that
would allow them to enforce a federal injunction prohibiting the
march. This decision led to criticism from some marchers who called
King cowardly. In Selma that night, James Reeb, a white minister from
Boston, was fatally beaten by a group of segregationists.
Six days later, on March 15, President Lyndon Johnson went on national
television to pledge his support to the Selma protesters and call for
the passage of a new voting rights bill that he was introducing in
Congress. "There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem.
There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem," he
said, "And we shall overcome."
On March 21, U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National
Guardsmen escorted the marchers across Edmund Pettus Bridge and down
Highway 80. When the highway narrowed to two lanes, only 300 marchers
were permitted, but thousands more rejoined the Alabama Freedom March
as it came into Montgomery on March 25. On the steps of Alabama State
Capitol, King addressed live television cameras and a crowd of 25,000,
just a few hundred feet from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where he
got his start as a minister in 1954. That August, Congress passed the
Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed African Americans the right to
vote. By 1967, African-American registered voters in Alabama had
nearly tripled.
history.com/tdih.do
In the name of African-American voting rights, 3,200 civil rights
demonstrators, led by Martin Luther King Jr., begin a historic march
from Selma, Alabama, to the State Capitol at Montgomery. U.S. Army and
National Guard troops were on hand to provide safe passage for the
"Alabama Freedom March," which twice had been turned back by Alabama
state police at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In 1965, King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
decided to make the small town of Selma the focus of their drive to
win voting rights for African Americans in the South. Alabama's
governor, George Wallace, was a vocal opponent of the African-American
civil rights movement, and local authorities in Selma had consistently
thwarted efforts by the Dallas County Voters League and the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register local blacks.
King had won the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace, and the world's eyes
turned to Selma after his arrival there in January 1965. He launched a
series of peaceful protests, and by mid-February thousands of
protesters in the Selma area had spent time in jail, including King
himself.
On February 18, a group of white segregationists attacked some
peaceful marchers in the nearby town of Marion. Jimmie Lee Jackson, an
African-American demonstrator, was fatally wounded in the melee. After
he died, King and the SCLC planned a massive march from Selma to
Montgomery. Although Governor Wallace promised to prevent it from
going forward, on March 7 some 500 demonstrators, led by SCLC leader
Hosea Williams and SNCC leader John Lewis, began the 54-mile march to
the state capital. After crossing Pettus Bridge, they were met by
Alabama state troopers and posse men who attacked them with
nightsticks, tear gas, and whips after they refused to turn back.
Several of the protesters were severely beaten, and others ran for
their lives. The incident was captured on national television and
outraged many Americans. Hundreds of ministers, priests, and rabbis
headed to Selma to join the voting rights campaign. King, who was in
Atlanta at the time, promised to return to Selma immediately and lead
another attempt.
On March 9, King led 1,500 marchers, black and white, across Edmund
Pettus Bridge but found Highway 80 blocked again by state troopers.
King paused the marchers and led them in prayer, whereupon the
troopers stepped aside. King then turned the protesters around,
believing that the troopers were trying to create an opportunity that
would allow them to enforce a federal injunction prohibiting the
march. This decision led to criticism from some marchers who called
King cowardly. In Selma that night, James Reeb, a white minister from
Boston, was fatally beaten by a group of segregationists.
Six days later, on March 15, President Lyndon Johnson went on national
television to pledge his support to the Selma protesters and call for
the passage of a new voting rights bill that he was introducing in
Congress. "There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem.
There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem," he
said, "And we shall overcome."
On March 21, U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National
Guardsmen escorted the marchers across Edmund Pettus Bridge and down
Highway 80. When the highway narrowed to two lanes, only 300 marchers
were permitted, but thousands more rejoined the Alabama Freedom March
as it came into Montgomery on March 25. On the steps of Alabama State
Capitol, King addressed live television cameras and a crowd of 25,000,
just a few hundred feet from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where he
got his start as a minister in 1954. That August, Congress passed the
Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed African Americans the right to
vote. By 1967, African-American registered voters in Alabama had
nearly tripled.
history.com/tdih.do
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