Selma to Montgomery March Byway
Selma to Montgomery Driving Tour
| Departure: | First Baptist Church, Alabama |
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| Destination: | Alabama State Capitol, Alabama |
| Time to allow: | 1 day |
"Confrontation of good and evil compressed in the tiny community of Selma generated the massive power to turn the whole nation to a new course..." (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 25, 1965)
Retrace marchers' steps in their fight for voter rights, from Selma to Montgomery. In Selma the march began, and understandably, in Selma the tour of the Selma to Montgomery Byway begins with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Street Historic Walking Tour, followed by a retracing of the march to Montgomery, which ends at the state capitol.
The tour encompasses the first section of the byway beginning on the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr., Street and Jeff Davis Avenue, passes the George Washington Carver Home, historic landmark Brown AME Church, and the Martin Luther King, Jr., monument. Through written word and vivid historic photographs, each of the 20 memorials along the route tell the story of the individuals, known and unknown, rich and poor, Black and white, who came together for a common cause.
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Start: First Baptist Church
This church played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Before then and since it has stood as a beacon of hope and unity to the community of Selma.
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Stop 2: Brown Chapel
Directions from previous place: The Brown Chapel is down the street from the First Baptist Church.
Distance from Previous Site: 0.1 miles / 0.2 km Travel Time from Previous Site: 1 minute Headquarters of the Voting Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke here on a regular basis. The site became the starting point for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.
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Stop 3: Cecil C. Jackson, Jr., Public Safety Building
The Cecil C. Jackson, Jr. Public Safety Building was once the old Selma City Hall. This building served as the city and county jail in which Dr. King and other protesters were imprisoned in 1965.
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Stop 4: Dallas County Court House
This was the destination of most protest marches in an effort to register people to vote.
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Stop 5: National Voting Rights Museum
Directions from previous place: The museum is just two blocks from the Dallas County Court House, at 1012 Water Avenue, in Selma, just before the Alabama River.
Distance from Previous Site: 1 miles / 1.6 km Travel Time from Previous Site: 2 minutes The museum commemorates the struggle of African Americans and white supporters to gain equal voting rights for all Americans, a struggle that lasted from the beginnings of the nation to the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982, signed by President Reagan.
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Stop 6: Edmund Pettus Bridge
Directions from previous place: Head east out of Selma on US Route 80. The Edmund Pettus Bridge crosses the Alabama River.
The fight for voting rights climaxed here on March 7, 1965, now commonly known as "Bloody Sunday." Marchers petitioning for equal voting rights were violently confronted and halted by law enforcement personnel on this bridge. Later, of course, a march was successfully made to Montgomery.
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Stop 7: Campsites
Directions from previous place: Sites scattered along Highway 80 to St. Jude.
Marchers walked 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery and spent the night at various campsites along the way. Marchers stayed at the Hall site March 21, 1965. Three-hundred people stayed at the Steele site on March 22. The Robert Gardner site is the third campsite. Marchers stayed here on March 23. The last site is the St. Jude campsite in the historic district of St. Jude, where marchers stayed on March 24.
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Stop 8: Memorial to Viola Liuzzo
Directions from previous place: Continue along Highway 80.
Between the cities of Petronia and Whitehall stands the memorial to Viola Liuzzo who was murdered while supporting the movement for civil rights.
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Stop 9: City of St. Jude
Directions from previous place: Continue along Highway 80.
Founded during the mid-1930s when segregation was the norm in the Southeast, the City of St. Jude Hospital pioneered nondiscriminatory health, education, and social services.
On March 24, 1965, voting rights marchers camped in the St. Jude Historic District, on the athletic field. It would be their last night on their path to the capital. That night the athletic field became a stage for a "Stars for Freedom" rally, with singers Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Sammy Davis Jr. all performing.
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End: Alabama State Capitol
Directions from previous place: Continue along Highway 80 to Montgomery. The capitol is located at 600 Dexter Avenue in Montgomery.
Distance from Previous Site: 6 miles / 9.6 km The capitol was the destination of the march. The legion, that had swelled to 25,000, began its final six-mile walk from the City of St. Jude on March 25, to the Alabama Sate Capitol where Dr. King delivered the climatic speech "How Long, Not Long."
On the steps of the great building, Dr. Martin Luther King told marchers that the journey was through but that the struggle for civil rights was far from over. He assured them that it would be won, though, and that it wouldn't be long. "How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever...How long? Not long. Because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
A 20-member committee, appointed by King, presented a list of grievances to Governor George Wallace as the marchers began to disperse. Thus the historic march came to an end, and participants from all over the United States, Canada, and Europe began their trek home. Within five months of this third march, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
