Selma Alabama
We Shall Overcome -- Selma-to-Montgomery March
The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. 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 law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups...," said Judge Johnson, "and these rights may be exer ... [Read More]
Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail (National Park Service)
The climax to the decades-long voting rights crusade in Alabama erupted in March 1965 as Civil Rights activists converged on Selma, Alabama. The final push to achieve a nationwide solution to the disenfranchisement of African Americans came as the result of three strategically planned marches, the first of which took place on March 7. Nearly 500 marchers proceeded through the streets of Selma and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were faced by scores of Alabama State troopers. The troopers attacked the non-violent marchers, leaving many of them bloodied and severely injured, on a date forever ensconced in history as " Bloody Sunday". A second march ended in a prayer session at the point of Sunday's confrontation. When an injunction circumventing the march to the Alabama State Capitol was reversed, a plan was devised to conduct the monumental trek on Sunday, March 21, 1965. Thousands of people, representing many races and nationalities, moved before the eyes of the world in dem ... [Read More]
Civil Rights - Law and History/Voting Rights
In 1963, civil rights activists began an effort to register black voters in Dallas County, Alabama.During 1963 and 1964, although they brought potential voters by the hundreds to the registrar'soffice in the courthouse in Selma, they were unable to get them registered to vote. In January andFebruary 1965, protests were held in Selma to bring attention to this violation of rights. Theprotests were met by violence by Sheriff James Clark and his deputies. On February 17, a smallcivil rights march ended in the shooting of Jimmy Lee Jackson who died from his woundsseveral days later. The civil rights activists decided to hold a memorial march from Selma to thestate capitol in Montgomery on March. 7. ... [Read More]
Recreation.gov
The climax to the decades-long voting rights crusade in Alabama erupted in March 1965 as Civil Rights activists converged on Selma, Alabama. The final push to achieve a nationwide solution to the disenfranchisement of African Americans came as the result of three strategically planned marches, the first of which took place on March 7. Nearly 500 marchers proceeded through the streets of Selma and across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were faced by scores of Alabama State troopers. The troopers attacked the non-violent marchers, leaving many of them bloodied and severely injured, on a date forever ensconced in history as " Bloody Sunday". A second march ended in a prayer session at the point of Sunday's confrontation. When an injunction circumventing the march to the Alabama State Capitol was reversed, a plan was devised to conduct the monumental trek on Sunday, March 21, 1965. Thousands of people, representing many races and nationalities, moved before the eyes of the world in dem ... [Read More]
The First March From Selma
One hundred years after the end of the Civil War, many African Americans were still facing barriers which either prevented or made it very difficult for them to register to vote. In Selma, African Americans made up almost half the population, but only two percent were registered voters. Discrimination and intimidation tactics aimed at blacks kept them from registering and voting. The demonstrators marched to demand fairness in voter registration. ... When 525 people started a planned march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday March 7, 1965, it was called a demonstration. When state troopers met the demonstrators at the edge of the city by the Edmund Pettus Bridge, that day became known as "Bloody Sunday." Why were the people marching? ... [Read More]
info.alabama.gov - Alabama Directory - State Employee Search Form
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We Shall Overcome -- The Cost
On "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama, police and troopers on horseback charged into a group of marchers, beating them and firing tear gas. Several weeks later the marchers trekked the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery without incident, but afterwards four Klansmen murdered Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo as she drove marchers back to Selma. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his life for the movement, struck down by an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. ... When white supremacists could not halt the civil rights movement, they tried to demoralize its supporters. They bombed churches and other meeting places. They set high bail and paced trials slowly, forcing civil rights organizations to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. At a Nashville lunch counter sit-in, the store manager locked the door and turned on the insect fumigator. In St. Augustine, Florida, city officials who had promised to meet with black demonstrators at City Hall offered them an empty table and a tape recorder instead. In Selma, Sheriff Jim Clark and his deputies forced 165 students into a three-mile run, poking them with cattle prods as they ran.Random violence accompanied calculated acts. The Klan bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four black girls. On the campus of the University of Mississippi, a stray bullet struck a local jukebox-repairman in a riot that killed one reporter and wounded more than 150 federal marshals. In Marion, Al ... [Read More]
Davis (AL07) - Press Release - Congressman Davis Announces Restored Bus Service From Selma To Montgomery
In a letter to Congressman Davis, Greyhound expressed regret for the need to close these stations but also a desire to assist in restoring service to communities by other means if possible. Congressman Davis immediately initiated negotiations with public and private parties, including Greyhound, the City of Selma and the state of Alabama, to see that some action was taken. ... [Read More]
The First March From Selma
The First March From Selma ... Alabama police attack Selma-to-Montgomery marchers ... CREDIT: "Alabama Police Attack Selma-to-Montgomery Marchers." March 7, 1965. Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ... [Read More]
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