.25th March 1965: The Selma to Montgomery March to Alabama State Capitol - HiPo > .
Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal segregation, many Southern states continued to suppress black voter registration. In Alabama’s Dallas County, where Selma was the county seat, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee led a voter registration campaign that faced increasingly violent resistance from local law enforcement under County Sheriff Jim Clark. On 18 February 1965, African-American demonstrator Jimmie Lee Jackson was fatally shot by a state trooper after a civil rights march. This prompted activists to organize a march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital.
Approximately 600 marchers departed Selma on the morning of Sunday 7 March. However, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge they found a large group of state troopers and local police who launched a ferocious attack that became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.
Two days later, on ‘Turnaround Tuesday’, the number of marchers had grown to around 2,500 people. To avoid breaking a temporary restraining order against further demonstrations, Martin Luther King, Jr stopped the demonstration at the bridge before turning back to Selma. Nevertheless that evening a young white minister who joined with the marchers was beaten and later died.
On 15 March President Johnson pledged his support for the protestors and called for voting rights legislation. Six days later the third and final march departed Selma, protected by U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National Guardsmen. They arrived in Montgomery on 25 March, where King made his ‘How Long, Not Long’ speech to a crowd of more than 25,000 people. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress in August.
Approximately 600 marchers departed Selma on the morning of Sunday 7 March. However, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge they found a large group of state troopers and local police who launched a ferocious attack that became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.
Two days later, on ‘Turnaround Tuesday’, the number of marchers had grown to around 2,500 people. To avoid breaking a temporary restraining order against further demonstrations, Martin Luther King, Jr stopped the demonstration at the bridge before turning back to Selma. Nevertheless that evening a young white minister who joined with the marchers was beaten and later died.
On 15 March President Johnson pledged his support for the protestors and called for voting rights legislation. Six days later the third and final march departed Selma, protected by U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National Guardsmen. They arrived in Montgomery on 25 March, where King made his ‘How Long, Not Long’ speech to a crowd of more than 25,000 people. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress in August.
