At that time, more than 80% of Dallas County blacks lived below the poverty line, most of them working as sharecroppers, farm hands, maids, janitors, and day-laborers. Read about our approach to external linking. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local lawmen attack the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas, driving them back to Selma. In the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, King himself led a symbolic march across the bridge once again. The Guardian’s editorial on 26 March 1965 declared that, while there was much still to be done, ‘the message from the march to Montgomery reads full of hope.’. On March 21 King led marchers (estimates of their number vary but generally fall between 3,000 and 8,000) out of Selma, over the Pettus Bridge, and on the road to Montgomery. The three Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 were part of the Voting Rights Movement underway in Selma, Alabama.By highlighting racial injustice in the South, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.Activists publicized the three protest marches to walk the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma … In 1961, the population of Dallas County was 57% black, but of the 15,000 blacks old enough to vote, only 130 were registered (fewer than 1%). Then the troopers moved in. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race in the United States, but while legally black people were allowed the vote, some southern state officials obstructed their efforts to register. The pivotal moment came on Sunday 7 March, as demonstrators began a march from Selma to the state capitol, Montgomery. Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Black and White non-violent supporters fought for the right to vote in Central Alabama. The marchers were advised to turn around to avoi… The marches started in Selma, Alabama, and went all the way to Montgomery, the state capital. The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama memorializes the route taken by marchers during the Voting Rights March from March 21 to March 25, 1965. Belated support from President Johnson came on 13 March, when he announced in a televised statement that a new bill for voter rights would be pushed through Congress. The footage that played on televisions around the world and the front pages bearing witness to vicious beatings galvanised support. In the first march, also known as Bloody Sunday, the marchers were attacked by the police. In 1965, there were three major Civil Rights marches in the southern US state of Alabama. The Selma to Montgomery Marches ‏‏‎Established by Congress in 1966, the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail commemorates the people, events, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama. Guardian correspondent Jonathan Steele filed a report from Selma, ‘a community that is on fire.’ Four days later, Judge Frank Johnson overruled Alabama governor George Wallace and ordered him to allow the march. ID: F2FA1T (RM) Reverend Al Sharpton and others begin march from Selma to Montgomery on Sunday, March 4, 2012. On 21 March 1965, after a months-long battle, the freedom march finally set off from Selma to Montgomery to lobby for voter registration. When the freedom march finally set off, on 21 March, thousands had joined the ranks (spurred on by the murder of white minister James Reeb, a civil rights activist who had come to Selma after Bloody Sunday). U.S. President Barack Obama marches alongside Rep. John Lewis and First Lady Michelle Obama toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge marking the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches March 7, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Today, you can connect with this history and trace the … Bloody Sunday: A flashback of the landmark Selma to Montgomery marches On March 7, 1965, civil rights activists organized a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama to … Marchers demand an end to discrimination in voter registration. At first they were impassive; then they grew incredulous as they saw the long, long crocodile of people; they would burst out into applause when they saw Martin Luther King; laugh when they recognised friends, hesitate, overcome their fear, and join the marchers themselves... and the marchers grew and grew until they reached that broad avenue and marched right up to the Capitol under the nose of Governor Wallace. The The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery. At the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge more than 100 Alabama troopers were blocking their way. As the marchers crossed Edmund Pettus Bridge on their route out of Selma, they were met by a posse of state troopers armed with nightsticks and wearing gas masks. On Sunday, March 7, 1965 about 600 people set to march to Montgomery, the group was led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis. Footage of the march from Selma to Montgomery, 7 March 1965. Other marches followed and for the third march, a court order was raised that prevented the state from blocking the Selma to Montgomery March. In the middle of the 20th century, Montgomery was a major center of events and protests in the Civil Rights Movement, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma to Montgomery marches. 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