Impact of Civil Rights March Felt 40 Years Later
By Sebastian Kitchen
People from throughout the world will meet in central Alabama this weekend to remember the 40th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" and the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march. Historians, civil rights leaders and former presidents believe the march and Bloody Sunday, in which 17 people were hospitalized after they were beaten by state troopers and local law enforcement officers, galvanized national support for voting rights for all Americans.
"Though we were traumatized by the horror at the hands of the state and its extralegal apparatus, the posses and vigilantes, we never doubted that the right to vote, one person one vote, would become a reality in the state of Alabama. And when that happened, it was a joyous day."
— Gwen Patton Event Organizer |
Activities to mark the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma continue through March 12, when a reenactment of the march will conclude at the steps of the Alabama state Capitol, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed more than 25,000 people in 1965.
"Though we were traumatized by the horror at the hands of the state and its extralegal apparatus, the posses and vigilantes, we never doubted that the right to vote, one person one vote, would become a reality in the state of Alabama," said Gwen Patton, who helped with the 1965 march and is an organizer of anniversary events in Montgomery, Ala. "And when that happened, it was a joyous day."
The televised broadcast of the march brought national attention to the mistreatment of blacks and the need for equal voting rights.
The first attempt, March 7, 1965, failed as state troopers beat back marchers as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
With the protection of a federal court order, about 3,200 people set out from Selma on March 21. The march ended March 25 at the steps of the state Capitol. The number of marchers swelled as they neared the Capitol.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 less than six months later.
Ella Bell, who turned 17 on the last day of the original march, said she asked her mother for one thing for her birthday: She wanted to march with King. Her mother had Bell write a letter stating why she should be allowed into harm's way to join the march.
"I wrote my momma a letter and said nothing could be of greater satisfaction than to know I had marched for my own freedom," she said.
Her mother allowed her to march, but she was told to walk in the center of the crowd.
"The Lord allowed me to see with my own eyes such dramatic changes in the social structure of my city and state and my nation — not that I consider anything finished," Bell said.
Patton was student body president at the Tuskegee Institute in 1965. Patton, now an archivist at Trenholm State Technical College, and other students provided many of the meals to the marchers.
She said they watched the start of the original march and witnessed the "horror" as people were beaten by state troopers.
"It was a rallying call," she said. "We were prepared to die at that moment if need be and not to die like dogs, but to die standing on our feet with our backs straight and with dignity to fight for our first-class citizenship rights and our human rights. We were being denied our basic human rights."
Patton said the march was a victory for black people. She said they were convinced the federal government would intervene and erase the barriers that had been created to keep black people from voting.
"These barriers were so mean and humiliating that we just knew that the federal government would declare these silly, yet deadly state laws unconstitutional," Patton said.
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