This Day in History: 7 March 2020
7 March 1965
55 years ago, today, Bloody Sunday occurred, in Alabama, consisting of 600 civil rights activists, which ended in violence when the marchers were attacked and beaten by white state troopers and police. The demonstrators were led by civil rights activist John Lewis, commemorating the recent death and shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year old church deacon, by state trooper James Bonard Fowler. The plan was to march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital, but were ordered quickly to disperse, as the police assaulted them with tear gas, bullwhips and billy clubs. Lewis was hospitalised, and many more were treated for injuries.
This violence was broadcasted on TV, and recounted in newspapers, sparking demonstrations in 80 US cities. Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 2,000 marchers to the Selma bridge, and on March 15, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke on the need of a reform in voting, which is what the activists had been fighting for. King then completed the march to Montgomery, with 25,000 demonstrators, under the protection of the army and the FBI, and this route is now a US National Historic Trial. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law five months after, and Lewis became a US congressman from Georgia in 1986.
Want to find out more about Bloody Sunday's significance in the Civil Rights Movement? Click here for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment