March 1965
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.
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.
Events
- March 21, 1965Selma to Montgomery March Completed
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.
- March 25, 1965Viola Liuzzo Shot Dead by Klansmen on Selma Highway
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.
- March 11, 1965Rev. James Reeb Beaten to Death in Selma by White Attackers
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.
- March 9, 1965MLK Leads Second March to Edmund Pettus Bridge
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.
- March 9, 1965Governor Wallace Blocks Second Selma March; Tear Gas Threatened
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.
- March 7, 1965Selma and Bloody Sunday
Marchers for voting rights are beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, spurring the Voting Rights Act.
- March 7, 1965Bloody Sunday: the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
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.