The United States during the 1960s was a very racially-tense time period. African Americans all over the South and the entire nation, were protesting through the Civil Rights Movement. One of the most crucial aspects to this protest was the Selma marches. On March 7th, 1965, 600 people intended to march from Selma, AL to the state capital of Montgomery. They were protesting the denial of voting rights for African Americans in the state of Alabama. However, they didn’t make it very far before they were met by violent white state and local lawmen on the outskirts of Selma. Here they were attacked and assaulted with billy clubs and tear gas before returning to Selma. This event later became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Over 50 marchers were severely …show more content…
Prior to the establishment of this act, African Americans faced many legal restraints prohibiting many of them from voting- a right guaranteed to all citizens under the fifteenth amendment. When African Americans attended the polling booths, they were often asked to complete a literacy test or pay a poll fine to vote. These tests caused a vast demographic of African Americans to be exempt from the voting process, excluding and discrediting their voices. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally outlawed any discriminatory voting prerequisites used by many Southern states at the time. The development of this act is often seen as a crucial turning point for the Civil Rights Movement and one of the nation’s most significant accomplishments since Reconstruction. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the percentage of black voters registered grew almost 40%. It finally gave African Americans the rights they deserved as American citizens and allowed them to have an equal and unprecedented voice in their democracy. One of the last pillars in Jim Crow’s segregated US was finally knocked over. All the activists’ sacrifices, struggles, and determination had finally paid off, and African Americans were seen as equals in one aspect-at
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on March18, 1965 conducted an interview with Meet the Press. The NBC interview has interviewers from different backgrounds asking Dr. King a series of questions about why he supported the march from Selma. His answers explain that despite the cost of human life demonstrations had the power to exact change in the nation. Martin Luther King also lays out why he believes demonstrations are necessary for civil liberties, and what it would take to stop the demonstrations. Since Meet the Press was intended for a national television researchers would have to be weary of whether Martin with accurately describing his own feelings about The Marches from Selma.
“Selma to Montgomery”, a report written by Chuck Stone in the February of 2000, is about African Americans marching together to Montgomery to fight for their equal rights. Even after the freedom summer in 1964, blacks remained unable to vote, but it wasn’t very long until a new project took action. A march across highway 80 from Selma, Dallas to Montgomery was the plan. It took a great deal of courage and determination for them to go through with it, especially since the people of the white race caught them and forced them to halt multiple times, making them end their march. Alabama state troopers confronted the people of colour at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, during their first attempt to march “The troopers began to push them back; marchers
This is a picture of the march in Harlem promoting the march in Selma. The march in Harlem was a demonstration to show how many people wanted equality. So how many roads must a man walk to be called a man? These people are walking roads for a race to be called man, not to be treated like animals, to be treated like a man.
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia aliens this resolution in the Second Continental Congress proposing ability for the American colonies. Acting beneath the apprenticeship of the Virginia Convention, Richard Henry Lee on June 7, 1776, alien a resolution in the Second Continental Congress proposing ability for the colonies. The Lee Resolution independent three parts: an acknowledgment of independence, an alarm to anatomy adopted alliances, and "a plan for confederation. " The certificate that is included on page 22 is the complete resolution in Richard Henry Lee 's handwriting.
Published in The Campus on March 18, 1965, Professor Korn describes his personal journey to support the cause of the civil rights marchers in Selma. He describes how he met other supporters and would band together along the way to Selma. When he reached Selma, he describes how he felt during Reverend James Reeb’s funeral march and the march that took place on March 9, 1965. Lastly, he describes seeing a hate broadcast condemning the Selma marchers as communist. Reflecting the views of the northern goodwill supporter of the Selma voting rights movement, Korn assets researchers in understanding what it was like for outsiders supporting the cause.
On the night of his death he was accompanied by two of his family members, when he was shot by State trooper on February 18th, 1965. His death inspired many to join the march from Selma to Montgomery in his honor. After being stopped by state troopers in the first march, Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a second march with federal protection. Finally the Federal Voting Rights Act was passed on August 6th, 1965. To this day, the march remains an important piece of
The South Carolina vs. Katzenbach case was established based off the U.S. Supreme Court on the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On March 1965, the Voting Rights Act offered the federal government new powers to fight the alienation of African Americans prolonged by the southern government. Many Southerners didn’t approve Congress’ decision to pass this legislation. The people of the south argued and believed that the U.S congress had violated their states’ rights.
"Bloody Sunday,” occurred when a guy name John Lewis and a lady named Hosea Williams attempted to lead more than 500 civil rights marchers east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They made it only to the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away from where they started, where they met state and local policemen. The police men attacked the blacks with Billy clubs and tear gas. Bloody Sunday took place due to the fact that one protester by the name of Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot down by an Alabama state trooper on February 26, 1965. Bloody Sunday displayed a huge impact in the civil rights movement.
The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the
By 1955, African Americans around the United States, including the South, had begun the struggle for justice. Emmett Till's murder was a spark in the upcoming of activism and the civil rights movement. In April of1960, Martin Luther King hosted a pilgrimage of 300 students from sit-ins in nine states. Almost all of them were close peers of Emmett Till in age. During the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, many African-Americans were mistreated and subjected towards violence.
Thesis From the mid 1910s to the early 1960s there were many riots that occured, because of racial tensions built up between the the whites and the blacks world wide. Coming from Will Brown being accused of rapping a young white girl, and to Eugene Williams having rocks thrown at him causing him to drown. Segregation at this time was unjustified due to racism still being heavily considered as the right thing to do. These riots caused the United States to be even more segregated, due to unequal rights and no laws being created at the time to help and protect African Americans. During these riots there were cases of police brutality and whites being able to do whatever they choose to do, because they felt as if it was a justified reason to stop the African Americans from rioting.
This event gained lots of press coverage and incited protests from people all over the country who sympathized with the protesters in Alabama. President Lyndon B. Johnson also spoke out against police brutality and announced his intent to pass a voting rights bill because of the events that Sunday. Another protest formed as Dr. King invited people from all over the country to join in on a march to Montgomery two days later on March 9th. It was essential that Dr. King organized the next protest so soon after the events of Bloody Sunday so as to keep the press coverage on the issues in Alabama. The second march proceeded with around 2,000 people, but was also halted at Edmund Pettus Bridge by the Alabama government, although this time there were no casualties or violence during the
Despite those legislative achievements for equality, African Americans still faced mistreatment both in society and the discrimination was apparent while voting. African Americans had to take literacy tests to determine their eligibility to vote and at sole discretion of the person administering the test between 1950 and 1960. The Civil Rights movement combated these
My understanding of the Civil Rights Movement before watching this movie was that there were many protests to fight for what was right. In the movie Selma, there were two key protests. One was the march to the courthouse and the other the march across the bridge. The scale of these two protests was something that I hadn’t thought about before. In the second march across the bridge, there were people from all over the
Maria Ahmed 7th Period The movie Selma details Martin Luther King Jr. and his fight in the 1960s. More specifically the movie depicts the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery. The blacks already the voting rights but because of laws like Jim Crowe segregation laws they were denied when registering to vote. The movie shows also what paved the way to the Civil Rights Act.