Selma, Alabama. Dallas County. In 1965, Black people constituted more than half the county’s population. Fewer than two percent were registered to vote. The registrar’s office was open two days a month. Applicants were required to pass a literacy test that white applicants were not given. Those who tried to register were fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, or beaten. [1]
On February 18, 1965, state troopers and a mob attacked civil rights marchers in nearby Marion. A trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a twenty-six-year-old deacon, as he tried to protect his mother. He died eight days later. [1]
In response, organizers planned a march from Selma to Montgomery — fifty-four miles — to demand voting rights from Governor George Wallace. On March 7, approximately 600 marchers set out. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge — named for a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader — they were met by state troopers and county posse members on horseback. [1]
The troopers attacked with billy clubs and tear gas. They fractured John Lewis’s skull. They beat Amelia Boynton unconscious. Television cameras broadcast the attack into living rooms across America. The day became known as Bloody Sunday. [1]
Martin Luther King Jr. called for clergy of all faiths to come to Selma. They came — priests, ministers, rabbis, nuns — from across the country. On March 9, King led 2,500 marchers to the bridge, where they knelt and prayed before turning back. That night, a white Unitarian minister from Boston named James Reeb was beaten to death by white supremacists. [1]
On March 21, protected by federalized National Guard troops, 3,200 marchers set out again. They walked for four days. By the time they reached Montgomery, their number had grown to 25,000. [1]
Five months later, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. [1]
Bibliography
[1] Wikipedia. “Selma to Montgomery marches.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches