Selma Alabama
Essay title: Selma Alabama
Selma, Alabama became the focus of the civil rights movement as activists worked to register Black voters. Demonstrators also organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to promote voting rights. “Bloody Sunday” occurred
when state troopers attacked demonstrators.
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.”
On Monday January 14th King returned to Selma, registered in the Hotel Albert, becoming the first black to do so. He then went on to lead to the courthouse to register to vote. Nothing happened the first day, but on the second 67 people were arrested. So it went day by day. Reverend King was arrested during one of the marches and his presence in jail attracted additional media attention to Selma.
On February 18 the SCLC leader James Orange was arrested in Perry County. That evening hundreds of blacks gathered and marched on the jail. On the way they were attacked. Among the victims of the attacks were Jimmey Lee and his mother. Lee was