Selma March Research Paper

A: INTRO: In 1965, Martin Luther King and the southern Christian Leadership group made Selma, and Alabama the focus of their efforts to register Black people to vote. That March 1965, protesters were attempting to march from Selma to the State Capital of Montgomery. As the world watched the protest go on. King’s participation helped raise awareness of difficulty faced by Black voters. The need for a voting rights ACT, passed later that year.

The Selma to Montgomery March influenced Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act to gain the voting equality in the South.

March 7, 1965 about 600 people arrived in downtown Selma, Alabama to walk in the famous march known as Bloody Sunday. The civil rights leaders organized this march because of the blocking of black peoples’ votes. This march wanted to call attention and stress the denial of black’s constitutional right to vote. There were many places that blacks were not allowed to vote, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Dallas, all places that black people had the highest percentage of the population. Before the march, doctors were telling the protesters how to react when there is violence. The protesters were aware that there could be tear gas, clubs, cattle prods, bombs, snipers and even more. Because of the recent death threats, Dr. King was not

Laws and additional rights started to change due to the events of “Bloody Sunday,” on March 7th, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. What started as a fifty-four mile march to the Alabama’s capital protesting for African American voting rights, soon became a brutal assault by heavily armed state troopers and deputies. Fifty of the

March 16 saw a demonstration in Montgomery, Alabama in which 580 demonstrators planned to march “from the Jackson Street Baptist Church to the Montgomery County Courthouse” (Reed 26). These protestors included a large number of northern college students. They met a police line a few blocks from the Courthouse and were forbidden from proceeding because “they did not have a parade permit” (Reed 26). Across the street came 40 or so students who planned on joining the group en route to the Courthouse. Eventually a few of the demonstrators dared to cross the street, led by James Forman who had organized the march. When it seemed the whole group would cross, police took action, with mounted officers and volunteers arriving at 1:12 pm. Riding into the small group of protestors, they forced most to withdraw, but a few stood fast around a utility pole where horsemen began to beat them. “A posseman

Decided to make Selma, Alabama its new target on registering black voters buy organising a march from

“There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes ”… These words said by Martin Luther King Jr. marked a new dawn for African Americans and their right to freedom as citizens of the United States. The march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama brought equality to blacks and changed the course of American history.

That changed in February, however, when police attacks against nonviolent demonstrators increased. On the night of 18 February, Alabama state troopers joined local police breaking up an evening march in Marion. In the ensuing melee, a state trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church deacon from Marion, as he attempted to protect his mother from the trooper’s nightstick. Jackson died eight days later in a Selma

The 1965 Selma protest led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, there were three protest marches that attributed to the civil rights movement during this time. It was a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, which took place from March 7-21, 1965. The protest movement in Selma was launched by local African-Americans, who formed the DCVL. It was later joined by organizers from the SNCC, they began

Even though the marchers faced violent opposition and met with conflict, they continued their protests. The books and the movie displayed conflict throughout. One example is during the first attempt to cross the bridge, when the marchers were met by the Alabama State Troopers. It went very dark, very quick, as the troopers barged towards them, making this day known as “Bloody Sunday”, March 7, 1965. When asked for his comments in the movie by the press after the brutal attack on the marchers, King says “While rageful violence continues towards the unarmed people of Selma, while they are assaulted with tear gas and batons like enemy in a war, no citizen of this country can call themselves blameless, for we all bear a responsibility for our fellow man. I am appealing to men and women of God and goodwill everywhere, white, black and otherwise. If you believe all are created equal, come to Selma. Join us. Join our march against injustice and inhumanity. We need you to stand with us”. The second attempt to cross the bridge on March 9, 1965 brought clergy, men, and women from all over to join. But faced conflict as well, this time between Martin Luther King Jr, and the marchers themselves. However, there was a major difference regarding this attempt to cross, between the books and the movie. In the books, the marchers were met on the bridge by a Federal Official who

In Selma, Dr. King continued to organize and motivate blacks to march peacefully until they get the right to vote. On February 10, 1965, a group of students banded together and protested in front the courthouse where they were beaten with clubs, hit by police cars and electric cattle prods and held in jail for several days. Every day, there were marchers and arrests, many people were often beaten by the police. Dr. King announced that a march will be held on March 7, 1965 from Selma to Montgomery to voice their grievances. Marchers gathered at the Brown Chapel and around four in the afternoon, led by SCLC workers, Hosea Williams and John Lewis started their journey. As they approached Edmund Pettus Bridge, there stood Sheriff Clarke and State

A devastating 18 day, 50-mile march took place countless beaten senseless, but it was worth it. The first Selma to Montgomery march 7 1965 bloody Sunday. The march began when a prime leader John Lewis the leader of the SNCC (Student nonviolent coordinating committee) he wanted to try to end segregation as well as bring voting rights to blacks. Nevertheless, that’s not how it went, state troopers were ordered to wait 2 minutes before attacking the marchers, if you haven’t guessed yet that’s not how it went, the state troopers attacked. Ending up in the result of brutality hurting numerous men along with women. Spiting on them clubbing them to the extinct of jail time in are generation, whipped, stomped on by horses, the list goes on and on. That remains known as bloody Sunday. When someone my age (13) thinks about bloody Sunday it’s vague but if you were to ask someone who was there it’s an era of dark memories. This would go on to what will build

The film Selma takes place during the Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama during 1965. However, there were more struggles going on in the United States than just the black civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Mexican Americans struggled for fair wages at their jobs as migrant workers, and the United States fought an ideological war abroad in

Even though the marchers faced violent opposition and met with conflict, they continued their demonstrations. The books and the movie displayed controversy throughout. One example is during the first attempt to cross the bridge, when the marchers were met by the Alabama State Troopers. It went very dark, very quick, as the troopers barged towards them, making this day known as “Bloody Sunday”, March 7, 1965. When asked for his comments in the movie by the press after the merciless attack on the marchers, King says “While rageful violence continues towards the unarmed people of Selma, while they are assaulted with tear gas and batons like enemy in a war, no citizen of this country can call themselves blameless, for we all bear a responsibility for our fellow man. I am appealing to men and

highlighting the tensions between police and minority communities (Holmes and Smith, 2008). First, in 1963, police used police dogs and high-powered water hoses against civil rights protestors in Birmingham, Alabama (NAACP, 2005). The usage of such violent and outrageous tactics by the police became the center of national attention that sparked major public outcry. Then, on March 7, 1965, during what is now known as Bloody Sunday, Alabama State Troopers attacked non-violent protestors and civil rights advocates with both tear gas and batons, which led to the hospitalization of over 50 people (Holmes and Smith, 2008). These events were key in signaling that a police reform was once again necessary across law enforcement agencies in the United