1965

Protected by federalized National Guard, 8,000 marchers set out from Selma on March 21. The column crossed Alabama's Highway 80 over four days. On March 25, 25,000 people arrived at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, where King delivered his 'How Long, Not Long' speech on the capitol steps. Viola Liuzzo, a white Detroit housewife, was murdered by Klansmen that evening.

President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, outlawing discriminatory voting practices and authorizing federal oversight of elections in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination. Section 5 required preclearance from the Justice Department for any changes to voting laws in covered states. Black voter registration in the South increased by over 700,000 within a year.

26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot in the abdomen by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler while shielding his mother during a nighttime voting rights march in Marion, Alabama. Jackson died eight days later. His death directly inspired the plan to march from Selma to Montgomery. Fowler was not charged until 2007.

Jimmie Lee Jackson (26), a deacon and voting rights marcher, was shot in the stomach by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler during a night march in Marion, Alabama. Jackson was beaten while trying to protect his mother and grandfather. He died February 26 after eight days in hospital. His death directly inspired the Selma-to-Montgomery march.

Detroit homemaker and SCLC volunteer Viola Liuzzo was shot in the head by KKK members in a passing car while driving a young Black marcher, Leroy Moton, on Highway 80 near Selma after the third Selma-to-Montgomery march. FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe was in the Klan car. Three Klansmen were convicted on federal civil rights charges but served little time.

In Dallas County, Alabama (Selma), despite a Black population majority, only 335 of 15,000 eligible Black residents were registered to vote by early 1965. County registrars used literacy tests, arbitrary rejections, and office hours of only two days per month to block registration. Applicants were required to read and interpret obscure passages of the Alabama constitution.

MLK announced a campaign to register Black voters in Selma, Alabama, where only 335 of 15,115 eligible Black voters were registered. Sheriff Jim Clark's aggressive tactics against would-be registrants made Selma a deliberate target for demonstrating the need for federal voting rights legislation.

Martin Luther King Jr. announced a campaign to register Black voters in Selma, Alabama, where only 335 of 15,115 eligible Black voters were registered despite Selma being the Dallas County seat. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark's aggressive tactics against would-be registrants made Selma a target for demonstrating federal voting rights legislation's necessity.

As the Selma campaign began, Dallas County Alabama registered only 335 of 15,115 voting-age Black residents, compared to 9,542 of 14,400 eligible white residents. The county registrar was open only two days a month and applied deliberately inconsistent literacy tests. This documented disparity was cited in congressional hearings leading to the Voting Rights Act.

Dallas County, Alabama registered only 335 of 15,115 voting-age Black residents versus 9,542 of 14,400 eligible white residents. The registrar was open two days a month and applied inconsistent literacy tests. This documented disparity was cited in congressional hearings for the Voting Rights Act.

Unitarian minister James Reeb was beaten with clubs by white men outside a Selma restaurant two days after Bloody Sunday. He died March 11 after emergency brain surgery. Three men were arrested but acquitted by an all-white jury. President Johnson cited Reeb's death in his nationally televised voting rights address to Congress.

Episcopal seminary student Jonathan Daniels was shot dead by unpaid special deputy Tom Coleman with a shotgun in Hayneville, Alabama, as he pushed 17-year-old Ruby Sales out of the way. Daniels had been jailed with other civil rights workers and released hours earlier. Coleman was acquitted by an all-white jury after deliberating less than two hours.

Before the 1965 uprising, the Los Angeles Police Department under Chief William Parker had documented patterns of brutality in Black neighborhoods. Parker had publicly compared Black residents to 'monkeys in a zoo' in 1965. The McCone Commission confirmed 'deep and long-standing schism between a substantial portion of the Negro community and the Police Department' as a primary cause of the unrest.

Before the 1965 uprising, LAPD Chief William Parker had documented patterns of brutality in Black neighborhoods. Parker publicly compared Black residents to 'monkeys in a zoo.' The McCone Commission confirmed 'deep schism between a substantial portion of the Negro community and the Police Department' as a primary cause of the Watts unrest.

On the second attempted Selma-to-Montgomery march (Turnaround Tuesday), Governor George Wallace ordered state troopers to block the marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. MLK led marchers to the bridge and turned back after prayer to avoid another violent confrontation. Federal Judge Frank Johnson had issued a temporary restraining order against the march, which King defied and then honored.

Martin Luther King Jr. led 2,500 marchers to the Edmund Pettus Bridge and turned back after praying, to comply with a federal court injunction. Critics called it 'Turnaround Tuesday.' That evening, white minister James Reeb, who had traveled to Selma to support the marchers, was beaten by white men and died two days later.

Marchers for voting rights are beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, spurring the Voting Rights Act.

On March 7, 1965, Alabama troopers beat voting-rights marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Televised nationwide, "Bloody Sunday" shocked the country and drove passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Federal protection of the ballot finally enforces the 15th Amendment.

The revolutionary leader is killed in Harlem, having reshaped Black political consciousness.

Six days of unrest in Los Angeles expose Northern racial inequality.