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Marching to Montgomery

In March 1965, peaceful protesters in the US state of Alabama captured the attention of the world. Their courage in standing up for equal rights led to new laws guaranteeing voting rights for all American citizens.

In the first half of the twentieth century, ‘Jim Crow’ laws in southern US states kept black people separated from white people. These laws required schools, train carriages, water fountains, parks, cemeteries and other facilities to be designated as whites-only or blacks-only. Even public libraries had separate ‘white’ and ‘coloured’ sections. Although these were often justified as ‘separate but equal’, blacks-only spaces were usually inferior to whites-only facilities.

As a further injustice, black citizens often could not vote. Discriminatory state laws imposed heavy poll taxes on non-white applicants, making voting unaffordable. Non-white applicants were sometimes given ‘literacy’ tests, posing questions that were nearly impossible to answer. Black citizens also knew that if they tried to vote, they could be fired, evicted from their homes or jailed. Their very lives could be in jeopardy. But without the vote, it was harder to make their voices heard and change the rules.

In 1964, the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, banning racial segregation and discrimination. However, local officials continued to bar black citizens from voting. In Dallas County, Alabama, for example, only about 150 had registered to vote, out of approximately 15,000 black residents of voting age. Civil rights leaders decided to increase their efforts to rally for voter registration in Alabama.

On Sunday 7 March 1965, about six hundred marchers gathered in Selma, Alabama, to demand equal voting rights. Organisers John Lewis and Hosea Williams led the solemn crowd towards the Edmund Pettus Bridge, ready to march out of town to the state capital, Montgomery. At the bridge, state and local police blocked their way. Before the marchers could retreat, the police attacked, and many (including John Lewis) were injured. Television news showed the confrontation, which horrified millions of viewers. That day is remembered as ‘Bloody Sunday’ in the United States.

The protesters scattered, but only temporarily. Two days later, on 9 March, Martin Luther King, Jr, took the lead. King walked at the head of the crowd as they headed again towards the bridge. Again, police blocked their way. The marchers kneeled and prayed, then peacefully turned around.

Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, had sought a court order to block the protesters from marching. Instead, a judge for the national government issued a permit allowing the march to proceed from Selma to Montgomery. Meanwhile, President Lyndon Johnson addressed Congress, supporting the marchers and their cause of justice. He urged Congress to pass a new law to guarantee equal voting rights and authorised national troops to protect the marchers.

At last, on 21 March 1965, people from across the United States gathered in Selma to march. This time, more than two thousand marchers of different ages and races crossed the bridge and kept walking. For five days, the demonstrators marched to Montgomery, carrying banners and flags, chanting and singing. They slept in fields along the route. 

As the marchers approached Montgomery on 25 March, tens of thousands of supporters greeted them. In front of Alabama’s state government building, the crowd rallied to hear Dr King and others speak. The peaceful protests, and the enormous showing of support for voting rights, helped turn the political tide. Less than five months later, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and President Johnson signed it on 6 August. This law outlawed discriminatory voting laws and helped secure thousands of people their right to vote.