Non-Violence In Selma

From 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had takes a series of protests to strive for equal voting rights in Alabama, but due to opposition from local police, progress was slow. In 1965, King came to Selma to support local civil rights activists. During a peaceful protest on February 17th 1965, a local resident called Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot dead by the Alabama State Troopers. This fueled the famous march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7th 1965. Led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis, about 600 non-violence protesters confronted state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Using nightsticks, tear gas, whips, and even horses, troopers and local policeman beat up and dispersed the crowd. As New York Times reporter Roy Reed described,

“The [tear gas] cloud began covering the highway. Newsmen, who were confined by four troopers to a corner 100 yards away, began to lose sight of the action. But before the cloud finally hid it all there were several seconds of unobstructed view. Fifteen or twenty nightsticks could be seen through the gas flailing at the heads of the marchers.

The first 10 or 20 Negroes were swept to the ground screaming, arms and legs flying and packs and bags went skittering across the grassy divider strip and onto the pavement on both sides.”

As a result, at least 17 Negroes were hospitalized with injuries and about 40 more were given emergency treatment for minor injuries and tear gas effects.

State troopers’ violence received national attention through television and it helped gain Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which banned voting discrimination against african american. Within months, more than 250,000 african americans were able to register to vote across the