MARCH 7, 1965

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• From 1961 to 1964, the student non-violent coordinating committee led a voting registration campaign in Selma, al. This small town had a record of consistent resistance to black voting.

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• After the sncc's efforts had been shot down by resistance from county law enforcement, Martin Luther King Jr. & the southern Christian leadership conference were persuaded by other local activists to make selmas resistance to black voting national.

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• During January & February of 1965, King & sclc led a series of demonstrations to the Dallas county courthouse. In February 1965, jimmy lee Jackson was shot and killed by an Alabama state trooper.

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• In response, there was a protest march from Selma to Montgomery scheduled for March 7. Six hundred marchers came together in Selma on Sunday, March 7 and were led by John Lewis and other sncc & sclc activists across the Edmund pettus bridge that crossed over the Alabama river to Montgomery.

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• Just before they reached the bridge, they found their way blocked by Alabama state troopers & local police who ordered them to turn around. When the protesters refused, the officers shot teargas & charged into the crowd, attacking the nonviolent protesters with clubs, hospitalizing over 50 people.

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• What was later called "bloody sunday" was televised around the world. Martin Luther King called for civil rights supporters to come to Selma for a second March.

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• When members of congress pressured him yo restrain the March until the courts could grant federal protection, King found himself torn between the government & the activists in Selma.

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• King ultimately led the second March on March 9 but was stopped at the same bridge. On March 21, the final successful march began with federal protection, and on August 6, 1965, the voting rights act was passed.

AUGUST 6, 1965

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• President Johnson took office in November of 1963 after jfk had been assassinated. He was elected in a landslide victory, and he used his popularity to push for legislation he believed would improve the American way of life.

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• This included stronger voting-rights laws. Bloody Sunday shamed congress & the president into passing the law, meant to enforce the 15 amendment to congress on March 1970.

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• In a speech to congress on March 15, 15, 1965, president Johnson outlined the devious ways in which election officials denied African American citizens to vote.

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• Told they had the wrong date
• Wrong time
• Wrong location
• Officials were late/absent
• Passed insufficient literacy skills
• Filled out application wrong

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• They were also forced to take literacy tests, which they inevitably would fail just because of the area they lived in or because they didn't get a chance to finish school.

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• After much deliberation, on August 6, 1965, president Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the voting rights act. This guaranteed the African Americans the right to vote. The bill made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state, & local elections that were designed to keep blacks from voting.