1965 Civil Rights March
March 7, 1965: the Selma Civil Rights March took place almost 100 years after the Civil War. Although so much had changed, the country was still steeped in racial inequality and overt racism. As well as, “separate, but equal” standards of living; due to Jim Crow. Although Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans saw little change. American Citizens experienced the inability to fully participate in the American landscape, for no reason than the color of their skin.
Marching for Freedoms
The fear of repercussion or violence was a daily reality. Law enforcement and local and state governments thwarted months of protests, sit-ins and efforts to integrate and enforce the Civil rights Act of 1964. To promote further change, civil rights leader John Lewis helped organize and led over 600 hundred people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. A bridge named for a “Confederate general and reputed grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.” Protestors in the peaceful march intended to start in Selma and go to the Governor’s office in Montgomery. In response to the march, Governor Wallace had called on state troopers to use whatever force needed to prevent the progress of the marchers.
Bloody Sunday
As marchers crossed the bridge they were met with the physical manifestation of the governor’s words. “They knocked the marchers to the ground. They struck them with sticks. Clouds of tear gas mixed with the screams of terrified marchers and the cheers of reveling bystanders. Deputies on horseback charged ahead and chased the gasping men, women and children back over the bridge as they swung clubs, whips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire.” For the first time these events were caught on film, allowing Americans to see what was truly happening for citizens deemed other. The events of Selma lead to public outcry and more protests, as well as laying the groundwork for congress to pass the Voting Rights Act.
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Source: History.com
Image Source: Adobe Stock
