Selma, Alabama February 1965 - Marches and demonstrations over voter registration prompt Alabama Governor George C. Wallace to ban nighttime demonstrations in Selma and Marion, Alabama. February 18, 1965 - During a march in Marion, state troopers attack the demonstrators. State trooper James Bonard Fowler shoots and kills Jimmie Lee Jackson. Fowler was charged with murder in 2007 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2010. March 7, 1965 - About 600 people begin a march from Selma Montgomery. Marchers demand an end to discrimination in voter registration. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local lawmen brutally attacked the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas, driving them back to Selma. Televised scenes of the violence, called Bloody Sunday, shocked many Americans; the resulting outrage led to King and SCLC members to continue the march to Montgomery; a five-day, fifty-mile march

Results of Selma Federal District Court Judge rules in favor of the marchers “the law is clear that the right to petition one’s government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups.” August 6, 1965-President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Civil Rights At 1964 and the Voting Rights Act 1965 are considered “landmark legislation”