On the 21st of March in 1965, on what was the third attempt by organizers to do so, voting rights activists successfully marched 54 miles from Selma, Alabama to the state capital Montgomery, arriving there with more than 25,000 people.

The marches were organized by civil rights activists to demonstrate the desire for black citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of state repression. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act that year, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.

The first attempt to make the march happened on March 7th, but failed due to police brutality. Police knocked marchers to the ground, beat them with nightsticks, and fired teargas. One marcher, a 14 year old girl, required 28 stitches in the back of her head. Although the assault ended the first attempt of protesters to march to Montgomery, it brought international attention to the protest.

After a federal court ruled that the march was legal, the third and successful attempt to march to Montgomery was made. By its end, 25,000 people marched to steps of the State Capitol Building in Montgomery. The protest was a watershed moment in the civil rights struggle, and, by the next year, 11,000 black people were successfully registered to vote in Selma.

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  • WhyEssEff [she/her]
    ·
    9 months ago
    >talking with destiny guy high school friend post-Borellification
>had two separate calls in which parts of it I argued with this man over whether Jim Crow is Apartheid 
>he keeps rebuking with "no apartheid has a very specific legal definition and jim crow doesn't meet it"  
>4am
>lying awake
>bored
>realize I haven't checked the source he keeps throwing at me when I try to argue for an example of racial segregation being apartheid
>look up the apartheid convention  
>what the fuck, it very clearly encompasses Jim Crow  
>send receipts to him  
>he didn't know the legal definition  
>we've been arguing for two days
>over two separate phone calls
>he's been citing a legal definition that he hasn't even fucking read

    these motherfuckers are terminally unserious oh my god hypersus