Bloody Sunday
Several marches followed, but it was the planned procession from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, often referred to as Bloody Sunday, that made history. While King was in Atlanta, nearly 600 marchers gathered at Brown Chapel. With SNCC’s John Lewis and SCLC’s Hosea Williams in the lead, the marchers set out for Montgomery by way of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. As the approached the bridge, they could see the Alabama state troopers and Selma police officers stationed across the bridge.Lewis and Williams were well aware that should they proceed, the procession could result in grave harm to the demonstrators. They had learned prior to the march that Governor George Wallace had given the order to stop the procession by any means necessary. Nevertheless, once on the bridge, they decided to neither stop nor turn around despite the warning from Major John Cloud to leave the bridge. They kept walking and as they had anticipated the troopers and officers attacked them with nightsticks, bullwhips, and used tear gas to impede their procession. Many demonstrators managed to return to the chapel unharmed, but seventy-eight returned injured.
King Leads a Peaceful March
While the attack may have been of little consequence to Governor Wallace, the media relayed the brutal events of Bloody Sunday to the nation. King immediately began planning for a Tuesday march across the bridge. When Tuesday came, however, King was disappointed that a judge refused to grant a court order prohibiting interference in the march until a full hearing could be held. Nevertheless, it was decided that the march would proceed.President Johnson was now worried about a repetition of Sunday’s events. He dispatched a mediator to Selma to work with both sides. Community Relations Service Director LeRoy Collins privately worked out a deal with King and Sheriff Clark moments into the march; if King agreed to lead the marchers across the bridge to where the troopers were stationed and then turn around and lead them back to the chapel, Sheriff Clark would allow the procession unhindered. As agreed, King led 2,000 marchers across the bridge to the line of troopers. He prayed, they sang “We Shall Overcome,” and he led them back to Brown Chapel.
The Selma to Montgomery March
On March 15, President Johnson introduced a voting rights bill to Congress. Meanwhile, it was the next march on March 21 that was finally the last. Wallace refused to provide protection, so President Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect the marchers. It took five days to reach Montgomery from Selma, where the march concluded with a speech from King on the steps of the state capitol to an audience of 25,000.
The Passage of the Voting Rights Act
On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The act prohibited literacy tests, but not poll taxes. Poll taxes were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966.References:
Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.
Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross. New York: Perennial Classics, 1999.
