50th Anniversary: Selma to Montgomery Marches
In March 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized a 54-mile march from Selma to the Alabama state capital of Montgomery to protest laws that prevented black citizens from voting. The first march on March 7, 1965 became known as Bloody Sunday were attacked by Alabama state troopers after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. As seen in this Universal Newsreel, the marches reached Montgomery on March 24, 1965. Later that year, President Lyndon Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act into law.
In March 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized a 54-mile march from Selma to the Alabama state capital of Montgomery to protest laws that prevented black citizens from voting. The first march on March 7, 1965 became known as Bloody Sunday were attacked by Alabama state troopers after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. As seen in this Universal Newsreel, the marches reached Montgomery on March 24, 1965. Later that year, President Lyndon Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act into law.