March 6, 2015

Police use force to break up a peaceful demonstration against voter discrimination in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. (AP/Wide World)

March 7 is the 50^th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” an important event in the civil rights movement in the United States. On that day in 1965, U.S. civil rights activists made the first of three attempts to march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital, Montgomery, in support of African American voting rights. Police attacked the marchers, injuring as many as 100. The Selma marches contributed to the U.S. Congress passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1965, 100 years after the American Civil War ended, unlike most white Americans, many blacks still lacked access to the political process. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other discriminatory measures, as well as violence and intimidation, continued to prevent many blacks from voting. In January, two civil rights groups, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led an effort to register blacks to vote in southern states. They also led peaceful protests in the state. An all-white police force attacked the SCLC and SNCC activists. On February 18, a state trooper shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson, a black protester.

On Sunday, March 7, about 600 marchers met in Selma to protest the voting policies and Jackson’s murder. The marchers hoped to go to the state capital to present Governor George Wallace with their grievances. The protesters marched only six blocks before local and state authorities stopped them at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and ordered them to disband. The marchers stood their ground. The police then attacked the marchers with clubs, whips, and tear gas. As many as 100 protesters were injured and 17 were hospitalized. Reports of the event on television news programs helped gain sympathy and political support for the marchers and their cause.

On March 9, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who had organized the original Selma march, led about 1,500 marchers to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for a prayer service. Three white ministers marching with King were beaten by segregationists (people who support racial segregation). One of the ministers died two days later. On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act was designed to establish protections to guarantee African Americans the right to vote.

On March 21, nearly 3,200 protesters gathered with King in Selma to march again. This time, federal troops protected them. By the time the marchers reached the Montgomery State Capitol on March 25, the crowd had grown to 25,000. At the Capitol, King demanded that African Americans be given the right to vote without unjust restrictions. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The act gave the vote to hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks who had never voted. It also led to a large increase in the number of African American elected officials.

A “Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” commemorating the Selma marches, is taking place in Selma on March 5-9, 2015. It will feature over 50 events, including an address by President Barack Obama and a march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Other World Book articles:

• Civil rights (a Back in time article-1965)
• President of the United States (a Back in time article-1965)
• Selma marches