The Selma-Montgomery March The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote. At the time, Selma was populated by 15,100 Negroes and 14,400 whites, a probable place to start such a cause. The protests began when Martin Luther King Jr., and a couple of other people, registered in a white hotel. James Baldwin was there. However, when more blacks tried to register, they were arrested by the county sheriff. This resulted in marches and protests. One of the first riots involved around 400 demonstrators who were dispersed by state troopers. During the protest, one man, Jim Lee Jackson, was shot and killed, presumably by a state trooper. (“Central Point” 23). Enraged with the death of Jim, around 650 protestors gathered again on March 7 and attempted a march through Selma to Montgomery, ignoring Governor Wallace’s orders not to march. They again met with state troopers and a crueler response. A wall of state troopers was formed at US Highway 80 to stop the march. After refusing the orders from the police to stop the march, the troopers took action. The prot... ... middle of paper ... ...965: 1+ Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978 Phillips, Cabell. “Johnson Offers to Call Up Guard If Wallace Won’t.” New York Times. 19 Mar. 1965: 1+ Reed, Roy. “He Says ‘No Wave of Racism Can Stop Us Now.’” New York Times. 26 Mar. 1965: 1+ Reed, Roy. “Hundreds Pour Into Selma For March to Montgomery.” New York Times. 21 Mar. 1965: 1+ Reed, Roy. “Police Rout 600 in Montgomery; 8 Marchers Hurt.” New York Times. 17 Mar. 1965: 1 + Reed, Roy. “Rights Marchers Push Into Region Called Hostile.” New York Times. 23 Mar. 1965: 1+ Sobel, Lester A. “Vote Campaign in Selma.” Civil Rights 1960-66. New York: Facts on File 1967. Wallace, George. “Excerpts from Wallace’s Speech on the Alabama Rights Movement March.” New York Times. 19 Mar. 1965: 20
Here, though, the focus is primarily on the Committee’s voter registration initiative starting in 1964. This documentary provides a more historical perspective, and offers glimpses into the strategies used in Selma, Alabama to obtain social change. It shows how those within the group questioned the effectiveness of the protests and the march, and
The Tallahassee Democrat; "The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida," by Glenda Alice Rabby; and research by Mike Pope, former Democrat letters editor.
Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the active attempts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register the Black voters of Alabama no significant progress was made . One such place was Selma Alabama. This small southern town of 29,000 soon became the focal point of the Civil Rights movement. Of the 15,156 blacks in Dallas County, Alabama only 156 were registered to vote. On January 2, 1965 Reverend King visited Selma and gave a fiery speech in it he stated: "Today marks the beginning of a determined organized, mobilized campaign to get the right to vote everywhere in Alabama."
The article begins by describing that, on the night of Sunday, March 7th, 1965, millions watched as their regularly scheduled television programs were interrupted with disturbing images of unarmed African American men and women being brutally assaulted by state troopers and mounted deputies dressed in full riot equipment with nightsticks in a cloud of teargas during a peaceful march from the small town of Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the state capital, to protect the murder of an individual and the obstruction of their constitutional right to vote; the article provides an instance of this interruption by detailing that the broadcast of the movie “Judgement at Nuremberg” was interrupted on
Shaskolsky, Leon. “The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform?.” Phylon 29 (1963): 156-166. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 .
McGuire’s attention to Park’s upbringing and circumstances surrounding her famous bus protest shed new light on how she was able to use her own power to defend her human rights. This new interpretation is thus divorced from the “King-centric” view that is so popular in most history textbooks (p. 108). McGuire shows that it was women like Parks and Jo Ann Robinson who started the Montgomery Bus boycott, while male figures like Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. were more the voice to the people, rather than the brains behind the
The primary focus of nonviolent demonstration during the 1960’s eroded from emerging militancy, outcries of the Vietnam War, and the Government attention, however Goudsouzian depicts these uneasy strands together in Down to the Crossroad: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March against Fear. Told from a narrative perspective, Originally launched by James Meredith, he attracted activists from across the nation to join the march. The big march gained national and international attention, but depended on the politics of small communities, the resolve of black Mississippians, along with strategies of white officials. The march thus finds a balance between local and national. The March against fear lasted for three weeks and covered 200
Many marchers were critical of King’s unexpected decision to push on to Montgomery. President Johnson, issued a public statement: ‘‘Americans everywhere join in deploring the brutality with which a number of Negro citizens of Alabama were treated when they sought to dramatize their deep and sincere interest in attaining the precious right to vote’’ (Johnson, ‘‘Statement by the President,’’ 272). Johnson assured to introduce a voting rights bill to Congress within a few days. On May 15th, in a televised address to a joint session of Congress, Johnson compared the events in Selma to the events in Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War. He then proceeded to unveil his voting rights bill to the legislators and the nation. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which suspended the use of literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration and guaranteed the right to vote. The passage of the law also encouraged Johnson, King, and other activists to think more sincerely about tackling other pressing issues, which divide Americans along racial
Lee, Alfred McClung. Race Riot/by Alfred McClung Lee and Norman Daymond Humphrey. New York: The Dryden Press, 1943.
The year is 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. sits in a Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, arrested for leading a peaceful Civil Rights protest, his leadership shining bright in each stroke of his pen on paper. In contrast to the Henry’s, MLK conveys his message via written word, preaching peaceful conflict resolution, rather than calling for bloody war. Facing injustice in the form of racial discrimination, MLK responds to the criticisms of the white Birmingham Clergy who called his “non-violent direct action” (sit ins and marches) “unwise and untimely.” MLK demonstrates leadership through his calm, patient, and factual arguments, explaining the struggles faced by the Civil Rights movements due to injustices from church leadership and “moderate whites.” Addressing the clergy’s complaint of the “untimely” nature of his protest, MLK writes, “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed,” addressing the innate difficulties of his work. Here, MLK acknowledges the challenging nature of seeking such a grand social change, but he also provides factual examples of successful large-scale movements like “the nations of Asia and Africa… moving at jet like speed toward political independence.” His continual references to fact, citing Supreme court case rulings to support his statements on segregation,
On May 2-5, 1963, thousands of children, some from 18 miles away, gathered at the 16th street Baptist in Birmingham, Alabama. They left their schools to march for freedom, and many teachers allowed them to. James Bevel, a minister, organized the children and sent them out to the police in groups of fifty. The police could not fit them in their police vans, so they had to use school buses! On the first day, almost 1,000 kids were arrested. On the second day, the fire department came to help the police, and used fire hoses and vicious dogs against the children. On that day, about 2,000 were arrested. By the third day, the children were no longer afraid of the police or the firemen, and some even came out to march wearing their bathing suits.
It isn’t hard to grasp why there is currently so much focus on July of 1967 – this year is the anniversary of one of the deadliest riots in United States history, and it took place right here in Detroit. However, in the half-century since, there has been a good deal of debate over whether the term “riot” is the best name for the violence that occurred. I would say that the violence of July 1967 was more of a rebellion than a riot – a rebellion against an oppressive system in Detroit (and America) that has not yet been fully eradicated.
Conclusively Fergusons protest turned into a violent conduct in the streets preceding the rage of families who were not convinced that the police officer was truly not guilty and deserved no sentence or charge. On the contrary the 1968 marches in Selma Alabama did not turn to violent uprising in the cities in towns just people who rallied together for people’s rights and freedoms nevertheless the violence used against those who wanted to march the innocent people were bludgeoned, shot, and beaten because they did not want the blacks too be able too vote. In conclusion Selma, Alabama and Ferguson, Missouri both had important marches and protests for people’s lives and their fundamental rights and freedoms. Compared in their cause, their content, and proceeding
Tension filled air between the protestors, many citizens, white and black, stood with signs hanging around their neck to support the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling to desegregate the nation’s schools. Fighting against racism and the cold weather, protestors never ceased to pressure the government to intervene with the growing racism in public facilities. Setting the tone for the upcoming mood of protest in the 1960’s, the civil
The African American Civil Rights Movement was a series of protests in the United States South from approximately 1955 through 1968. The overall goal of the Civil Rights Movement was to achieve racial equality before the law. Protest tactics were, overall, acts of civil disobedience. Rarely were they ever intended to be violent. From sit-ins to boycotts to marches, the activists involved in the Civil Rights Movement were vigilant and dedicated to the cause without being aggressive. While African-American men seemed to be the leaders in this epic movement, African-American women played a huge role behind the scenes and in the protests.