Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Marches
March 7–25, 1965 · 20th Century
On March 7, 1965, six hundred marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand voting rights. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers attacked them with clubs and tear gas in what became known as Bloody Sunday. The televised brutality shocked the nation, prompted President Lyndon Johnson to address Congress, and directly produced the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A successful march completed on March 25 under federal protection drew 25,000 people.
Key Figures
Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.John Lewis
Locations
Montgomery, AlabamaSelma, Alabama
Topics
civil rightssegregationUSAafrican american historyvoting rightsactivismnonviolent resistance
Connected Events — 6 Connections
Extended mass action strategy of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The Selma marches built directly on the momentum of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, pushing the movement's focus from public accommodation to voting rights enforcement Civil Rights Act of 1964
The televised brutality of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge created the political crisis that forced Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act within five months Voting Rights Act of 1965
Fought to finally enforce promise of Fifteenth Amendment Ratified
Culminated movement whose greatest march was Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Continued tradition of organized mass civil rights movement of Black Lives Matter Founded
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