1965 Martin Luther King decided to launch a protest march
about the Blacks right to vote in Selma, Alabama
WHY?
• He believe the right to vote without fear or difficulty was
vital if civil rights were to be won
• Voter registration qualifications in the South often made
it impossible for Blacks to vote
Why was voting so important?
• Without the vote Black citizens had no voice
• Black politicians could be elected if Blacks could vote
• If Black politicians were elected they could help to make
improvements for Blacks
Why was 1965 a good time to act?
• Martin Luther King had just been awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for his civil rights work
– An international award only given to very special people
• He was now world famous and could use his fame to push
for more civil rights
Why did MLK chose Selma, Alabama for the protest?
• Alabama – state with greatest resistance to civil rights
• Selma - only 325 out of 15,000 blacks registered to vote
• Blacks who tried to register to vote were prevented
• Jan – Feb 1965 protests in Selma led to the shooting of
one Black protestor
• Governor of Alabama, George Wallace promised
‘Segregation forever!’
Martin Luther King is arrested…
• 1 Feb 1965 MLK deliberately
got himself arrested
• His arrest was planned as a
publicity stunt
Martin Luther King is arrested…
WHY?
• March in Selma was planned for a month later
• Shortly after winning the Nobel Peace Prize so MLK’s
arrest would be big news
The march begins…
• Took place 7 March 1965 – aim was to march from
Selma to Birmingham
The march begins…
• Took place 7 March 1965 – aim was to march from
Selma to Birmingham
• 600 marchers crossed a bridge on outskirts of Selma
The march begins…
• Met by 200 state troopers and local police on horseback
armed with tear gas, sticks and bull whips
The march begins…
• The marchers were ordered to turn back
• When they refused they were attacked by the law
enforcers
The march begins…
• Marchers were beaten, whipped, trampled on by horses
and tear gas was used
• 17 marchers were hospitalised
• USA was shocked by the images it say on TV
• Day became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’
The chief function of the Civil Rights movement has
been to awaken the nation’s conscience. Hundreds of
people dropped whatever they were doing, some
would leave home without changing clothes, would
borrow money, hitch-hike, board planes, buses and
trains, travel thousands of miles with no luggage; all
these people would move for a single purpose: to
place themselves alongside the Negroes they had
watched on television.
George Leonard, US Journalist who watched the events of ‘Bloody Sunday’
The US army protects the march…
• March 21, the march began again
• This time US troops protected the marchers
• They reached Birmingham March 25
• However, on the same day the KKK shot and killed one
of the marchers
Result of the March
• Aug 1965 Congress passed the Voting Rights Act
• This act removed various barriers to voting registrations
– E.g. literacy tests and checks on poll tax
How successful was the voting rights act?
% OF BLACK POPULATION
REGISTERED TO VOTE
State
1964
1968
Alabama
Florida
Georgia
Mississippi
South Carolina
14
26
22
4
11
56
62
56
59
56
• Within 3 years most of the Black population of the south
were registered to vote
• White politicians now needed Black votes to stay in power
• Some Blacks saw an opportunity to became politicians
themselves
• The Voting Rights Act marked the end of the civil rights
campaign in the south
• By 1965 the focus of civil rights protests moved
north and the style of protests also about to change
from non-violent to violent…...