The Negroes broke and ran. Jackson died eight days later in a Selma hospital.

One report was heard that sounded different. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the march was the culminating event of several tumultuous weeks during which demonstrators twice attempted to march but were stopped, once violently, by local police. When the Dallas County Voters League, the principal local civil rights organization, requested help from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma’s recently elected mayor, Joseph Smitherman, sought to prevent local law-enforcement officers from employing violence, fearing that bad publicity would work against his attempt to lure new industry to Selma. Arm in arm, Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King (in light-coloured suit), leading the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, March 1965. Behind and around the troopers were a few dozen possemen, 15 of them on horses, and perhaps 100 white spectators. Missing out on the latest scoops?

But before the cloud finally hid it all there were several seconds of unobstructed view. He said he

Scores of them streamed across the parking lot of the Selma Tractor Company.

Newsmen, who were confined by four troopers to a corner 100 yards away, began to lose sight of the action. He was admitted to the Good Samaritan Hospital with a possible skull fracture. Led by Hosea Williams, one of King’s SCLC lieutenants, and Lewis, some 600 demonstrators walked, two by two, the six blocks to the Edmund Pettus Bridge that crossed the Alabama River and led out of Selma. They were joined shortly by the 0 troopers, who had been called back to regroup after turning back the marchers. The march became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The officer responded that there was nothing to talk about, and moments later he ordered the state troopers to advance. He said later that he had seen Sheriff Clark lead a charge with about half a dozen possemen to try to force the Negroes from Sylvan Street into the church. "Troopers, advance," he commanded.

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Lloyd Russell of Atlanta, a white photographer who had stayed at the other end of the bridge, said he saw at least four carloads of possemen overtake the marchers as they re-entered Broad Street.

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The mounted possemen spurred their horses and rode at a run into the retreating mass.

They put on gas masks and held their nightsticks ready as the Negroes approached, marching two abreast, slowly and silently. One posseman was cut under the eye with a brick, he said. Some 200 troopers and possemen with riot guns, pistols, tear gas bombs and nightsticks later chased all the Negro residents of the Browns Chapel Methodist Church area into their apartments and houses. At the end of the street the possemen and troopers could be seen grouping into a formation.



The future congressman suffered a fractured skull. The Negroes cried out as they crowded together for protection and the whites on the sideline whooped and cheered. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was to have led the march, was in Atlanta. Meanwhile, lawyers for the SCLC went to court in an attempt to prevent Wallace and the state from intervening again in the demonstration. Selma, Ala., March 7 - Alabama state troopers and volunteer officers of the Dallas County sheriff's office tore through a column of Negro demonstrators with tear gas, nightsticks and whips here

The troopers, more than 50 of them, were waiting 300 yards beyond the end of the bridge.

In Selma, where African-Americans made up more than half the population, they constituted about 2 percent of the registered voters. The Negroes reportedly fought back with bricks and bottles at one point as they were pushed back into the Negro community, far away from most of a squad of reporters and photographers who had been restrained by the officers.

In unilaterally scheduling the action for Sunday, March 7, King alienated a number of SNCC leaders, who resented the lack of a joint decision. today to enforce Gov. While U.S. District Court Judge Frank Johnson, Jr., agreed to hear the petition, he also issued a restraining order forbidding any further demonstrations in the interim. Tells the Legislature to Link Increase to U. S. Action or Risk Loss of Industry, Tax Withholding May Be Revised:

In March 1965, thousands of people held a series of marches in the U.S. state of Alabama in an effort to get that right back. Previously he wrote rock criticism for Cleveland’s.

Johnson, however, remained largely noncommittal. They stopped. The two men went through the same exchange twice more, then the major said, "You have two minutes to turn around and go back to your church.".

Lyndon B. Johnson to push for a voting rights act. Before departing Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma on Sunday morning, marchers were reminded of their nonviolent tactics—that if they were halted, they should sit and pray until tear gassed or arrested. In Montgomery, U.S. District Court judge Frank Johnson Jr. issued a restraining order barring the march from proceeding while he reviewed the case. Two troopers passed among them and ordered them to get up and join the others. ". Negroes lay on the floors and chairs, many weeping and moaning. “The law is clear,” the judge wrote, “that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups ... and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.”, On March 21, protected by federalized National Guard troops, about 3,200 voting rights advocates left Selma and set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields.

at the other end of the bridge.

Mrs. Boynton lay semiconscious on a table. Mr. Gibson said that Sheriff Clark was struck on the face by a piece of brick but was not injured. On March 9, King led an integrated group of protesters to the Pettus Bridge.

They were young and old and they carried an assortment of packs,

The marchers had passed about three dozen more possemen

Hundreds of Negroes, including many who had not been on the march, milled angrily in front of the church. Nix cut a solo album, entitled Living by the Days, for Elektra Records in 1971, and put together a touring… Read Full Biography. "I fought in World War II," Mr. Williams said, "and I once was captured by the German army, and I want to tell you that the Germans never were as inhuman as the state troopers of Alabama. Significantly, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) interrupted its telecast of Judgment at Nuremburg (1961), a film about the prosecuting of Nazi war criminals, to show the events in Selma, which became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Over the next 48 hours, demonstrations were held in some 80 U.S. cities in support of the marchers.


The cloud began covering the highway. The women lay still.

Reluctant to violate the restraining order, however, he turned the procession around, after leading it in prayer, when state troopers ordered it to halt. he asked. Reforms Advised: New Grade Patterns, Shifting of 32,000 Students Urged, Vast New Program of Aid for Arts Urged on Nation: On March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, saying, “There is no issue of states’ rights or national rights.

We may have to go on to Washington.". Doctors and nurses threaded feverishly through the crowd administering first aid and

The Negro leaders worked through the crowd urging calm and nonviolence.

She was treated later at the hospital. He said Captain Baker held back Sheriff Clark and his possemen, who were regrouping for another assault.

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(The route along U.S. Highway 80 is now memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, and is designated as a U.S. National Historic Trail.).

After the attack on the marchers, Dr. King issued a statement announcing plans to begin another march Tuesday covering the 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Back to the top of this page.

Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. At the meeting Mr. Williams, who was not injured, told the 700 Negroes present about the plans for the Tuesday march. Mr. Gibson said the Negroes fell back momentarily, then surged forward and began throwing bricks and bottles. They then patrolled the streets and walks for an hour They stood 25,000 strong on March 25 at the state Capitol in Montgomery. Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington.

John Lewis (foreground) is beaten by a state trooper in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. We have already waited 100 years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.”, On March 17, Judge Johnson ruled in favor of the demonstrators.

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In late 1964, as SNCC intensified its registration campaign in response to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, local law enforcement—led by the county’s militant segregationist sheriff, Jim Clark (who wore a button that read “Never!”)—resisted with increasing violence (including the use of electric cattle prods against demonstrators).

the Negroes with nightsticks. on British Suggestion for Vietnam Talks, Bonn Will Seek Formal Israel Tie: Jeff Wallenfeldt, manager of Geography and History, has worked as an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica since 1992. When the Negroes were 50 feet away, a voice came over an amplifying system commanding them to stop.

One was Mrs. Amelia Boynton, one of the Selma leaders of the Negro movement.

The troopers stood shoulder to shoulder in a line across both sides of the divided four-lane highway. A national uproar occurred when footage of the melee was broadcast on tens of millions of television sets across the country.

About 525 Negroes had left Browns Chapel and walked six blocks to Broad Street, then across Pettus Bridge and the Alabama River, where a cold wind cut at their faces and whipped their coats. Their march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital, was a success, leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The suppression of the march, which was called to dramatize the Negroes' voter-registration drive, was swift and thorough. The next sound was the major's voice.

President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, saying, “There is no issue of states’ rights or national rights. The other newsmen were finally allowed to follow the retreat.