Selma to Montgomery Marches

The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the emotional and political peak of the American civil rights movement. They were the culmination of the movement in Selma for voting rights, launched by Amelia Boynton Robinson and her husband, who brought many prominent leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement to Selma, including  Jim Bevel, Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King Jr..

The first march occurred on "Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965, when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by local and state police with tear gas and billy clubs. Only the third and last marchers successfully marched into Montgomery. The route is memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery National Trail.

This event was also supposed to be a non-violent march, but it was violent due to the fact that police were attacking the marchers.

The marches had a powerful effect in Washington. After witnessing TV coverage of "Bloody Sunday," President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Governor George Wallace in Washington to discuss with him the civil rights situation in his state.Two nights later, on March 15, 1965, Johnson presented a bill to a joint session of Congress. The bill itself would later pass and become the Voting Rights Act. Johnson's speech in front of Congress was considered to be a watershed moment for the civil rights movement.

-The event known as "Bloody Sunday".