Bloody Sunday Voting rights march in Alabama March 7, 1965

QUOTE “The vote is 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.” -President Lyndon B. Johnson

“We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” MLK “I have A Dream” Registered voters in 1962 Montgomery County, Alabama: 30,800 whites and 3,200 blacks

March 7, 1965 Selma, Alabama BLOODY SUNDAY

BACKGROUND Selma population: 15,400 blacks; 14, 900 whites Voting population: 99% white. 1% black Literacy Tests: mandatory to register to vote $2 poll tax January 1965: MLK led 400 marchers into the Selma courthouse and demanded the right to register to vote. Sheriff Clark arrested those who passed the literacy tests February 1965: MLK led more marchers into the courthouse. He and 250 other marchers were arrested. In one week 3000 marchers were arrested.

JIMMIE LEE JACKSON IS KILLED BY STATE TROOPERS IN MARION, AL It was evening at the Mount Zion Church on February 18th & 200 voting rights protestors attended a meeting to start a nighttime march Jimmie Lee Jackson, a native of Marion and a quiet minister student, was there. The police waited outside. They turned off all the street lights. As Jimmy and the marchers left the church the troopers attacked. Jackson was shot in the stomach by a trooper at Mack’s Café while protecting his mother and grandfather from a beating. He died February 26, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his eulogy.

The March King planned a march to honor Jimmy and draw attention to voting rights. It was planned for Sunday, March 7. Governor Wallace issued an injunction to stop the march. The highway patrol was put on alert. King met with President Johnson March 5 to ask for federal assistance in getting voting rights. Threats were made on his life, so King went home to Georgia to preach at his church. Hosea Williams took his place as the SCLC representative and John Lewis, head of SNCC, led the march with him.

BLOODY SUNDAY MARCH 7, voting rights activists began a 51 mile march from Selma to Montgomery in honor of Jimmie Lee Jackson Marchers walked less than a mile and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge State troopers met the demonstrators on the other side of the bridge.

In less than a minute the marchers heard these words… “This is an unlawful assembly. Your march is not conducive to the public safety. You are ordered to disperse and go back to your church or you house” -Major John Cloud

“I saw people being beaten and I began to try to run home as fast as I could.” -Sheyann Webb Marchers did not turn around fast enough. Police and state troopers shot tear gas into the crowd and brutally beat the demonstrators with clubs. Some marchers were trampled by horse-mounted police.

MARCHERS WERE ATTACKED IN LESS THAN A MINUTE.

BLOODY SUNDAY CONTINUED John Lewis asked marchers not to fight back. Lewis was hit in the head with a bat and had a concussion. People were tear-gassed, whipped, trampled, & clubbed. They were chased over the bridge back to church and beaten. Seventeen were hospitalized. Forty treated for tear-gas & minor injuries.

But on Pettus Bridge the only thing heard was the slap of billy clubs.” -Amin Sharif “They say beneath Pettus Bridge that every wild flower spread out its petals to catch the blood drops...