The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil‑rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. The historic 54‑mile On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, an African-American seamstress, left work and boarded a bus for home. As the bus became crowded, the bus driver ordered Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger. Montgomery's buses were segregated, with the seats in the front reserved for "whites only." March 21, 1965 to March 25, 1965. On 25 March 1965, Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights. Rosa Parks Library and Museum The courageous act of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks that led to the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott is powerfully documented. H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College The library's collections include documents, images, and oral histories of the march and the voting rights movement. Selma to Montgomery March End The national publicity that the march generated played a significant role in inducing the U.S. Congress to adopt the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which suspended the use of literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration and temporarily placed the registration process in certain obstinate areas, including Selma, in the hands of federal officials. Established by Congress in 1996, the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail commemorates the people, events, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama. Led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Black and White non-violent supporters fought for the right to vote in Central Alabama. Today, you can connect with this history and trace the events of these marches along the 54-mile trail. In March 2005, a re-enactment of the march took place to commemorate its 40th anniversary. [5] This anniversary led to the creation of a pedestrian walk around Selma. [6] In 2015 the Marion to Selma Connecting Trail was designated to connect the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail with the site of Jimmie Lee Jackson's murder. [7] Selma-Montgomery March Title: Selma-Montgomery March Years: 1965 Description: Rosa Parks: Interview 1 Creator: Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005 Haskins, James, 1941-2005 In March 1965, thousands of people held a series of marches in the U.S. state of Alabama in an effort to get that right back. Their march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital, was a success, leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Lowndes County Interpretive Center, a National Park Service visitors center, is along the Trail route midway between Selma and Montgomery. In Montgomery, visit the Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage, and the Alabama State Capitol to follow in the footsteps of the marches that were some of the most Speech at the Alabama Freedom March March 25, 1965— Montgomery, Alabama SPEECH Rev. Abernathy and all the distinguished leaders of this nation and all of you wonderful Freedom Fighters, my brothers and sisters and my children – because I have been called the mother of this – you see before you now a victim of all that has been perpetrated against one to make us less than human. The trail covers the attacks on Freedom Riders, the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March, and the Montgomery street corner where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. [March 25, 1965 | Montgomery, Alabama] Rev. Rev. Abernathy and all the distinguished leaders of this nation and all of you wonderful Freedom Fighters, my brothers and sisters and my children – because I have been called the mother of this – you see before you now a victim of all that has been perpetrated against one to make us less than human. The 60th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March is a poignant reminder of the resilience, courage, and determination that shaped the civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bicycle Club (MBC) is hosting the 60th Anniversary Selma to Montgomery Bicycle Ride on February 22, 2025, offering a remarkable way to honor this historic event. It was Jackson's death that sparked the idea of a march from Selma to Montgomery to demand equal voting rights. The idea of expanding the march from the courthouse of Dallas County to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, 87 kilometers (54 miles) away, showed how much the movement had grown. Marchers wanted to Rosa Parks at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches. The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches occurred in 1965, and were marked by violent attacks on the marchers by state and local police. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images Selma to Montgomery: Crossing a Bridge into History. The Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Held the first full weekend of March, the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee (334-526-2626), hosted by the National Voting Rights Museum, is a commemoration of the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” and the Selma to Montgomery marches, as well as a celebration of the right to vote. Rosa Parks arrested On December 1, 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger. The arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and was a defining moment in Parks' long career as an activist. Rosa Parks speaking at conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Ala. Stephen F. Somerstein—Getty Images By Olivia B. Waxman February 1, 2021 7:00 With his five cameras in tow, he traveled by bus to Alabama in 1965 to document the Selma to Montgomery March, gaining unfettered access to everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin.
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