Selma to Montgomery marches

The Selma to Montgomery marches were three 1965 protests in Alabama demanding voting rights for Black Americans. The final march reached Montgomery after federal protection was secured.

Dallas County Voters League: An African American civil rights organization that organized voter-registration efforts in Dallas County, Alabama. Its years of local organizing laid the groundwork for the Selma voting-rights campaign.
Turnaround Tuesday: The March 9, 1965, march led by Martin Luther King Jr. that turned back at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This second attempt followed Bloody Sunday but stopped after reaching the bridge.
Martin Luther King Jr.: A Baptist minister and civil rights leader who advocated nonviolent resistance and racial equality in the United States. King led the second and third marches and helped secure national support.
Voting Rights Act of 1965: A federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting and authorizing federal oversight of election practices. The marches helped build support for this landmark law, signed in August 1965.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: A civil rights organization founded in 1960 that organized direct action and voter-registration campaigns across the American South. SNCC organizers had worked in Selma before the marches began.
James Reeb: A white Unitarian Universalist minister who was beaten to death in Selma in March 1965 after joining voting-rights demonstrators. His killing intensified pressure for federal protection of the marchers.
John Lewis: A civil rights leader and politician who chaired SNCC and later represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lewis was among the marchers beaten at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
We Shall Overcome: A protest song rooted in gospel and labor traditions that became an anthem of the American civil rights movement. Marchers sang it as an expression of resolve and collective solidarity.
James Bevel: A minister and civil rights organizer who helped lead campaigns for nonviolent direct action. Bevel proposed a march to Montgomery after the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson.
Lyndon B. Johnson: The 36th president of the United States, who signed major civil-rights legislation including the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Johnson federalized Alabama National Guard troops to protect the final march.

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