On August 6th, 1965, president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave colored people the right to vote. Although the act was passed and enforced by the president, state troopers and local enforcement of the law was weak, and it was often ignored. Nonetheless, it gave colored people the right to vote. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among colored people raised from 6% to 59% in just five years. President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the act and lowered the age of being eligible to vote to 18 - for all people. This act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of the civil rights movement legislation. President Lyndon B. Johnson called the day “a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield.”
When people hear ‘Selma to Montgomery March’, they probably think it is just one single march from Selma to Montgomery. But in fact, there were three different marches. The first march took place on March 7th, 1965. State troopers and policemen met the marchers with clubs, whips, and tear gas, putting an end to the first attempt. This day became known as Bloody Sunday - about 600 peaceful marchers were attacked. March 9th, two days later, the second march took place. This one was known as ‘Turnaround Tuesday’. Marchers, troopers and police confronted each other on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. But when the troopers moved aside to let them pass, Dr. King led them back to the church. Once President Johnson committed to protect the marchers, the third and final march began on March 21st. Protected by 2,000 U.S army soldiers, 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard, and many other peaceful supporters, they marched along US Route 80, averaging 10 miles a day. On March 25th, they arrived in Montgomery.
To the police brutality they faced, and the blisters on their feet from walking miles a day, the marches were not easy. In the name of African American rights, 3,200 people, led by Martin Luther King, marched out of Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. They walked for roughly 12 miles a day, were called awful names, beaten, and sometimes even killed, and slept in fields at night, all for the right to register to vote. The state troopers and policemen, who often met the nonviolent marchers with violence, tended to use clubs, bats, whips, and tear gas. March 7th, 1965, around 600 people marched out of Selma along U.S Route 80, unsuspecting the horrors and violence they were soon to face. When the marchers crossed Edmund Pettus Bridge into Dallas County, a whole posse of state troopers and county people were waiting for them. They attacked the marchers with whips, clubs, tear gas, and nightsticks. In the end, 17 marchers were hospitalized, and 50 were treated for injuries. This day became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.
July 6th, 1964, two days after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, John Lewis led 50 colored people to the courthouse in hopes they could apply to vote. Instead, they were thrown behind bars. County sheriff Jim Clark arrested them all and didn’t give them a chance to vote. Not long after, January 1965 came along, and 225 more registrants were thrown into jail at the county courthouse. On February 5th, 1965, another 500 more people were arrested, Dr. King being one of them. Dr. King called Andrew Young from jail, telling him the demonstrations of lining up at the voters registering office would continue. Overall, 3,000+ people were arrested while protesting between January 1st and February 7th, but colored people only reached 100 registered voters.
The violence of Bloody Sunday and the death of James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston was beaten and killed by a white group, outraged protestors. They demanded that Selma be protected from civil disobedience. So they organized the final march, which would take them along U.S Route 80, otherwise known as “Jefferson Davis Highway”. The final route they marched along became named "Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail”. It was established in 1996 and is 54 miles long. Visitors can drive along the route from Selma to Montgomery, crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In Selma, they can take the Martin Luther King Jr. walking trail, which includes Brown Chapel AME Church, First Baptist Church, and other exhibits. In Montgomery, visit the Rosa Parks Museum and the Alabama State Capitol to follow in the footsteps of one of the most historical and stirring events in the Civil Rights Movement.
The fight for Civil Rights is not over. Almost half a century after the historic march in Selma, Alabama, activists say there’s still work to be done. March 7th, 2015, the 50th anniversary of The Bloody Sunday, protesters and activists crossed the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge to call attention to police shootings, and other modern-day civil rights issues. Many of them held up signs that focused on police brutality and referred the police shooting of a colored teenager, Michael Brown, on August 9th in Ferguson, Missouri. They shouted “Hands up, don’t shoot,” “Si Se Puede” and “No Justice, No Peace.” Many of them still feel there is a need for a civil rights movement. “The struggle continues,” Dallas resident John Fullinwider said. He held up a sign with the words “Selma” and “Dallas.” “The idea is that Selma of 1965 has a lot of similarities to current Dallas.” While a-lot has changed over the past 50 years, there’s more to be done.