Although
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally desegregated the South, discrimination was still rampant in certain areas, making it very
difficult for blacks to register to vote.In 1965, an Alabama city
became the battle ground in the fight for suffrage. Despite violent
opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.(David
Oyelowo) and his followers
pressed forward on an epic march from Selma
to Montgomery, and their efforts culminated in President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Release date: January 9, 2015 (USA)
Director: Ava DuVernay
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965
Between 1961 and 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
had led a voting registration
campaign in Selma, the seat of Dallas County, Alabama, a small town with a record of consistent
resistance to black voting. When SNCC’s efforts were frustrated by stiff
resistance from the county law enforcement officials, Martin Luther King,
Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were persuaded
by local activists to make Selma’s intransigence to black voting a national
concern.SCLC also hoped to use the momentum of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
to win federal protection for a voting rights statute.
During January and February, 1965, King and SCLC led a series of demonstrations
to the Dallas County Court-house. on February 17, protester Jimmy Lee Jackson
was fatally shot by an Alabama state trooper. In
response, a protest march from Selma to Montgomery was scheduled for March 7.
Six hundred marchers assembled in Selma on Sunday, March 7, and, led by John Lewis and other SNCC and
SCLC activists, crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River and route to Montgomery.Just short of the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas and waded into the crowd,beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.
“Bloody Sunday” was televised around the world. Martin Luther King called
for civil rights
supporters to come to Selma for a second march. When members of Congress
pressured him to restrain the march until a court could rule on whether the
protesters deserved federal protection, King found himself torn between their
requests for patience and demands of the movement activists pouring into Selma.
King, still conflicted, led the second protest on March 9 but turned it around
at the same bridge. King’s actions exacerbated the tension between SCLC and the
more militant SNCC, who were pushing for more radical tactics that would move
from nonviolent protest to win reforms to active opposition to racist
institutions.
on March 21, the final successful march began with federal protection, and on
August 6,1965, the federal Voting Rights Act
was passed, completing the process that King had hoped for. Yet Bloody Sunday
was about more
than winning a federal act; it highlighted the political
pressures King was negotiating at the time, between movement radicalism and
federal calls for restraint, as well as the tensions between SCLC and SNCC. and route to Montgomery. Just short of the bridge,
they found their way blocked by Alabama State troopers and local police
who
ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot
teargas and waded into the
crowd, beating the nonviolent protesters with billy clubs and ultimately hospitalizing over fifty people.
Sources:
Clayborne Carson, et al, eds., Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader:
Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from
the Black Freedom Struggle (New York: Penguin, 1991)
- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965#sthash.oKrQ32NS.dpuf
MLK Jr. and Protesters in 1965
"Selma", a scene from a movie, 2015
"Selma", a scene from a movie, Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, 2015
Actual Pictures of the protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, 1965
President with Dr. Martin Luther King's (one and only) granddaughter in 2013
|
She was surrounded by presidents, senators, a first lady and even Oprah, but Martin Luther King Jr.’s adorable granddaughter was the star of the show at Wednesday’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech.
Yolanda
Renee King, 5, kept her cool as Barack Obama hugged her mother and father and
even gave her a tic-kle as she stood regally at forefront of the event honoring
her grandfather’s march on Washington at the Let
Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action.
And though the late civil rights leader never go the chance to meet his oldest son’s very cute daughter, he would have undoubtedly found her irresistible like everyone else.
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