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Today in History: MLK Speech Concludes the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March
03/25/10
On March 25, 1965, the historic Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March reached a triumphant conclusion on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. Martin Luther King, Jr., marked the occasion by delivering a rousing speech to the assembled crowd of 25,000 civil rights protesters.
The Selma-Montgomery March was part of an extended campaign to draw public attention to the systematic denial of black voting rights in the South through such measures as poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and violence. Peaceful marchers originally set out from Selma on March 7, but they were brutally beaten by Selma police officers and Alabama state troopers. Photographs and news footage of this violent incident, which came to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” outraged the American people and generated an outpouring of support for the civil rights movement.
President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of federal troops to protect the marchers when they set out once again on March 21. After traveling 54 miles in five days, the procession finally reached Montgomery on March 25. The march helped build public support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Johnson signed into law on August 6.
Read the VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965