One of the most important efforts of the Civil Rights movement involved voting rights. It would seem that the right to vote would have been guaranteed by the governing documents of our nation’s history.The Declaration of Independence states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, gave black males the right to vote, which many of them exercised in the years that followed. (American women did not gain the right to vote until passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.) But that right was short lived, as the white majority systematically restricted the privileges of voting to the extent that in most of the south, the black vote was virtually non-existent at the time of the Civil Rights Movement.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in 1963 “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” part of that dream certainly was in reference to the right to vote. People of power and privilege can be very creative in protecting their power. Sadly, that can apply to any of us. The ways that the right to vote was restricted from black Americans included “Grandfather clauses” which denied the vote to those whose ancestors had never voted, literacy, history, or “intelligence” tests, residency tests, and various tests of character. In Alabama there was a statewide voter qualification test. In addition to these methods, racist individuals, including ordinary citizens, elected officials, law enforcement officers and of course the Klan used violence and intimidation in many forms to keep blacks from registering.
In Montgomery, less than 5% of black citizens were registered to vote. In Dallas County (Selma) Alabama, while more than half of the citizens were black, approximately 1% were registered to vote (about 150 out of more 15,000 citizens). In Lowndes county,the rural county between Selma and Montgomery, virtually none of the majority black population had been able to register. The local Dallas County Voters League had worked for years to make progress in registration. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to town in early 1963 to provide a sustained presence to assist with this effort. The work of the locals and the outside advocates continued throughout 1963 and 64, but their efforts produced very little progress as local citizens and volunteers alike encountered violent resistance.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed discrimination in matters of employment and also addressed voting rights and voter registration rights. But even the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not deter the segregationists in their determination to exclude blacks. As with other steps of progress – school segregation, public transportation and facilities, and business accommodations, the denial of rights would have to be confronted head on. The right combination of forces converged in Selma in 1965 to push this effort into the national spotlight.
The fifty-four mile Selma to Montgomery March was one of the most remarkable events of the Civil Rights Movement, helping motivate President Johnson and the Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which effectively eliminated the various tactics of voter discrimination. But the march itself, taking place over five days from March 21 to 25, was the culmination of a strategic, sustained, and hard fought effort. Black citizens had been diligently attempting to register for years. Late in 1964, King and other leaders decided to focus on Selma with the voting rights issue. King came to Selma in January, joining local citizens, SNCC and SCLC volunteers in rallies and marches between Brown Chapel AME Church and the Dallas County courthouse.
As was often the case in confrontations over civil rights, local political or law enforcement officials aggressively and vocally carried the banner of segregation in the local community. Such was the case in Selma. The leader was Sheriff Jim Clark. Knowing that the voting rights effort would possibly bring national attention to Selma, the mayor and others tried to rein in Sheriff Clark. As was the case in Birmingham, the determination of Sheriff Clark and like-minded individuals to preserve the status quo on segregation through the violent oppression of black citizens not only nullified any concern for the basic safety and dignity of fellow humans but also outweighed the fear of negative publicity that was sure to come.
Throughout January, marches continued. Citizens were arrested for various violations related to the strict rules that prevented blacks from gathering or protesting, or for gathering in the courthouse to register outside of narrow registration schedules. Hundreds of black citizens from every walk of life in Selma were arrested, and even children went to jail as in the Birmingham movement. Jail conditions were terrible. But the movement participants understood the importance of their effort and they persisted with a strategy to keep the pressure on Washington to gain the federal support that was needed.
In February the national attention increased. King was arrested and sent out a “Letter from Selma Jail.” Even the Black Muslim leader Malcom X spoke in Selma. President Johnson issued a statement strongly supporting the voting rights effort, and a federal judge issued an order requiring the registrar in Selma to process more applications. (Williams, p. 262) Arrests continued.
The violence took a tragic turn when Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young black man, was shot and killed by a State Trooper during an altercation related to a protest meeting in nearby Marion, Alabama while trying to defend his grandfather and his mother from the violence. A few days after Jackson’s death, James Bevel of the SCLC proposed to take the cause to Governor Wallace by marching all the way to Montgomery.
The march was planned for March 7, and Governor Wallace declared that it would not be permitted. SNCC leaders did not favor the march due to the danger, but the SCLC favored the idea (Williams, p. 268). King had travelled to Washington and then to his church in Atlanta, and was not present for the march. Hosea Williams of the SCLC and John Williams of SNCC were chosen to lead the marchers. Even though the SNCC had chosen to stay out of the march, Lewis, their chairman, marched as an individual in solidarity with the people of Selma. (Lewis, p. 332)
On March 5, Rev. Joseph Ellwanger, chairman of the Concerned White Citizens of Alabama, led a march of about 70 white supporters to the Dallas County Courthouse, expressing support for the voting rights cause and speaking out against the “shocking injustice that persists in the hostility and harassment extended toward blacks seeking to register.” They expressed horror at the brutality exercised against the assemblies and demonstrations. (Williams, p. 268) The white marchers sang "America the Beautiful," while white counter-protesters sang "Dixie" and local supportive blacks sang "We Shall Overcome." John Lewis observed in his memoir, "You couldn't have scripted a scene that summed up the civil rights situation in the South any better than that."(Lewis, p. 331) As was the case with the Birmingham business owners who attempted to desegregate their accommodations prior to the Birmingham movement, the voice of these sympathetic whites was drowned out by the more vocal segregationist majority and those in authority.
March 7 is the most well known event of the Selma crusade. 600 participants left Brown Chapel Church, marched six or seven blocks through town and to the Edmund Pettis bridge which crosses the Alabama River at the edge of downtown. There they were met by a wall of police and troopers armed with clubs and tear gas, with others on horseback. The marchers were ordered to turn around and return to the church. When they did not, the police line advanced and attacked the marchers, knocked many to the ground and chased them as they scattered through the town and back to the church. National news coverage broke into regular programming with footage of “Bloody Sunday." The brutality once again shocked the nation.
Another march was planned for the following Tuesday, as additional supporters came in from around the country. While the political authorities and the courts debated the legality of the march, King and the movement leadership debated about whether to proceed. In the end, King led the marchers up to the line of police that were once again prepared to stop the march, then King led the marchers back to the church. King’s decision was controversial and opposed by many. In the following days the violence claimed a second victim as James Reeb, a 38 year old Unitarian Minister from Boston and father of four, was struck in the head outside of a Selma diner; he died a few days later. This generated even more national outrage.
As President Johnson’s voting rights legislation was pushed into Congress, another march was planned, and thousands came to Selma to participate. With the backing of the court and with the protection of about 4,000 federal troops, federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents, approximately 4,000 people left Selma on Sunday, March 21. The march took five days, and while there were counter demonstrations, there was no violence. A crowd of approximately 25,000 joined the end of the march as the group approached the state capitol. There, leaders and heroes of the previous decade of Civil Rights efforts joined in the crowd as King gave one of his most memorable speeches. “However difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to the earth will rise again. How long? Not long … because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (Williams, p. 283)
The violence claimed yet another victim as Viola Liuzzo, a white housewife from Detroit, Michican was chased at high speed and gunned down by Klansmen as she transported marchers back to Selma. The site along Route 80 is marked by a large memorial.
One of the most violent and deadly chapters of the Civil Rights Movement gained perhaps the deepest and most impactful legislative change, as the comprehensive voting rights legislation was passed by the House and Senate by July 9, 1965. The legislation ended poll taxes, literacy and intelligence testing, and other barriers to registration and even today still provides accountability for all major voting rights issues in many states.
In terms of the loss of human life, the Selma movement was the deadliest of the southern civil rights era. Forty-one names are inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, listing individuals killed between 1955 and 1968. The names of 74 additional people are identified in a display at the Civil Rights Memorial Center. Race violence has in fact claimed thousands of lives in these many decades. However, it can be said that the nonviolent mass movement of the civil rights era, while filled with violent resistance on the part of racists, was not in general marked by death among its participants. We know of the bombing in Birmingham and the murders in Mississippi and many other individual incidents. Among the major mass movements, these three deaths make the Selma movement an outlier in this regard, part of the heavy price paid for the ultimate passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
NOTE: Significant provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were set aside by the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling issued June 25, 2013. Since that time, year by year, state legislatures in many states formerly under Voting Rights Act provisions continue to pass legislation which has the effect of diminishing the voting power of the black community.
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=44
http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage
Eyes on the Prize, Chapter 8 “Selma: The Bridge to Freedom,” Juan Williams (1987)
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. John Lewis, with Michael D'Orso (1998)