The march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama took place on March 21-25, 1965. The five-day, 54 mile march was an attempt to politically empower black voters.
In 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), arrived in Selma, Alabama to help register local African American voters. On March 7 a four-day march was organized from Selma to Montgomery. Governor Wallace, who said that he could not protect the marchers, forbade this march. On that day, after the marchers made their way across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were attacked with clubs and tear gas by police on horseback. This violence was caught on camera and was broadcast nationwide to horrified viewers that evening. Civil rights activists named this violent day Bloody Sunday. These actions prompted President Johnson to announce on national television that he was submitting a voting rights bill to Congress.
Two weeks later on March 21, the protestors tried again, this time protected by federal troops assigned to them by President Johnson. On the final day of the march,, Martin Luther King Jr., addressed a crowd of 25,000 at Montgomery's capitol.
The most immediate result of this historic march was the enactment of President Johnson's Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
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