From beginning to end, the Selma to Montgomery March Byway is filled with civil rights history. Home to one of the most significant events in the American struggle for equality, this 54-mile stretch of highway marks the journey that led to equal voting rights for American citizens, regardless of race.
Although the march officially began in March of 1965, on January 2, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the town of Salem, AL to oppose extreme voting restrictions imposed on colored citizens of the area. Despite repeated efforts by local blacks, registration attempts had been consistently denied access to all but two percent of the African-American population. Would-be voters often faced closed doors due to phony “rules,” such as a limit on the number of applicants, or facilities that closed suddenly and without explanation.
Protestors congregated in Salem, where they hoped the notorious brutality of local law enforcement would draw the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson and earn new voting rights legislation.
Despite mass arrests, the campaign continued without violence until February 18. On that day, officers trying to break up an evening march shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was defending his mother from a trooper’s nightstick.
Meeting Opposition from Alabama Troopers (AL) [2]
Following Jackson’s death, 600 civil rights marchers set out on March 7, 1965 to petition the state capitol in Montgomery. After just six blocks, state and local lawmen met them with teargas and billy clubs, driving them back to Selma’s Brown Chapel Church. The event became known as “Bloody Sunday,” and incited outrage throughout the nation.
John Lewis, currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, led the march and suffered a severe beating to the head. He later told reporters, “I don’t see how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam -- I don’t see how he can send troops to the Congo -- I don’t see how he can send troops to Africa and can’t send troops to Selma.”
Marchers Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge Outside of Montgomery, Alabama (AL) [3]
The second march began on March 9, this time led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Although President Johnson had warned King not to march until he could issue a court order to protect the marchers, King called on religious leaders across the country to help in his cause. That afternoon, he led a crowd of over 2,000 people from the town of Salem. Rather than continue on to Montgomery, however, King stopped the march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the previous attack, and asked his followers to kneel and pray.
Even though the second march never reached Montgomery, King’s act of restraint did gain him support from President Johnson, who urged Americans to stand up against the acts of brutality committed against the people of Salem and promised to introduce a voting rights bill to Congress. With the words “We shall overcome,” Johnson expressed his desire to eliminate the plagues of bigotry and injustice.
Alabama State Capitol Building (AL) [4]
The final, federally-sanctioned march departed from Salem on March 21, 1965 with the protection of hundreds of federal agents and Alabama National Guardsmen. Demonstrators marched between 7 and 17 miles per day, camping by night in fields owned by supporters and being entertained by celebrities such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. On the final day the number of marchers rose from 300 to 25,000 as the assembled crowd finally approached the steps of the Montgomery Capitol, where King delivered a stirring speech, proclaiming, “The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”
Although at least two people were killed in response to King’s remarks, on August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, calling the right to vote “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated three years later on April 4, 1968. Followers across the nation continue to honor his legacy annually on that historic day.
National Voting Rights Hall of Fame Names in the National Voting Rights Museum (AL) [5]
Today, the towns of Selma and Montgomery remain as symbols of the exciting and inspiring history behind the civil rights movement. Visit the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma and peruse themed rooms which highlight different aspects of the struggle for equality. Appreciate the silent feeling of dignity surrounding Brown Chapel, the headquarters of the Voting Rights Movement. In Montgomery, walk up the steps of the Capitol where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic speech or ponder lives forever changed as you wander past the Civil Rights Memorial or add your name to the Wall of Tolerance in the Civil Rights Memorial Center on Washington Avenue.
Although the fight for change and equality continues today, the legacy and ideals represented through the sacrifice of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement stand as a beacon to those who have followed, giving hope for an even brighter future.
