Oral+History

Oral History  March On Selma

Background Information: 

The March on Selma was the last of three marches. It was four-day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. It was lead by both Martin Luther King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The group of African Americans, whites, young and old had plenty of military protection sent by president Johnson. They checked the roads and bridges etc. for armed men or bombs before the marchers crossed their path. Racist Alabamians drove along side of the protesters threating to fire all the African Americans from work. Martin Luther King walked about 27 miles in all. He gave a speech at the state capitol, '"We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways,They told us we wouldn't get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world today knows that we are here and that we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama, saying 'We ain't goin' let nobody turn us around.'"

King in this march was calling for a desegregated schools as well as desegregation in all public places. His main point of the march was to end voting discrimination. He was trying to present a petition to Governor Wallace protesting voter discrimination. Johnson arrested many members of the KKK for slaying the protesters after the march was finished. The march led directly to the Voting Rights Act which outlawed southern states from preventing African Americans from voting. It got rid of the literacy tests and African American registration shot up afterward in the following years.

After the marches, some African American felt that it took the death of white man, who was killed sometime during the marches, for the president Johnson to be concerned. Among the crowd of marchers, there were ministers and marchers of all faiths. The marchers were protected with helicopters and planes that flew overhead. Some of the marchers returned home after marching highway 80.

works cited:

__ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login__. 25 May 2009 .

"Protest on Route 80 - TIME." __Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com__. 25 May 2009 []

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0214523/selmamarch.htm



