Selma to Montgomery marches
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The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.
Alabama Highway Patrol troopers attack civil rights demonstrators outside Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.
Police watch marchers turn around on Tuesday, March 9, 1965.
Monument for James Reeb in Selma, Alabama
The third Selma Civil Rights March frontline. From far left: John Lewis, an unidentified nun, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Bunche, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Frederick Douglas Reese. Second row: Joseph Ellwanger is standing behind the nun; between King and Bunche is Rabbi Maurice Davis. Heschel later wrote, "When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying."
Selma, Alabama
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Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About 80% of the population is African-American.
Image: St. James Hotel, Selma, Alabama Highsmith
Image: Edmund Pettus Bridge 03
Image: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute (27833744111)
Union General James H. Wilson