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THREAD: #OTD, thousands gathered in Selma, and after 2 other unsuccessful attempts, set out on the #SelmaToMontgomery march.
Read along as we set the stage for this important historic moment. #ACLUArchivespic.twitter.com/BDoAthQlQq
It is important to realize that Brown v. Board of Education happened in 1954, and Rosa Parks was arrested on the bus in 1955--a full 10 years before Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act. There were years of backlash from integration before voting rights were possible.
A month after Parks' arrest, governors in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia vowed to block school integration, and the Virginia legislature passed a resolution on February 1, 1956 that the Brown ruling was "illegal encroachment" on states' rights.
A year later on February 8, 1957, the GA Senate also voted that the 14th and 15th Amendments were null and void in the state. They didn't think Black people should have equal rights or the right to vote. Less than a week later, SCLC was formed, with MLK as its chairman.
In 1957, the first VRA was passed, establishing the Commission on Civil Rights. But it did little to help Black voters.https://twitter.com/ACLUAlabama/status/959118177769672705 …
Meanwhile, throughout these years, voting rights activists were targeted and killed, and churches that were used for registration drives were burned or bombed, including the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963.https://www.aclualabama.org/en/news/lisa-mcnair-talks-race-and-racism-anniversary-16th-street-baptist-church-bombing …
However, grassroots orgs like SNCC, SCLC, and others were busy running voter education and registration drives. This groundwork helped set the foundation for the Selma march the following year.https://twitter.com/ACLU_MS/status/959533289202733056 …
@ACLUMSED But what really set things in motion was when voting rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by an Alabama state trooper. His death outraged the Black community, and his fellow activist James Bevel called for a protest march to Montgomery.https://twitter.com/ACLUAlabama/status/965330246726770688 …
When the protesters arrived on Sunday March 7, 1965, Bevel and hundreds of other marchers like John Lewis and Amelia Boynton walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the other end, troopers formed a blockade and attacked the marchers. #BloodySunday
Two days later, a crowd assembled with King for a second attempt, but due to a court ordered ban, the marchers turned around at the bridge.https://twitter.com/ACLUAlabama/status/972124058287472642 …
Finally, on March 21, the #SelmaToMontgomery march began. It took 4 days to walk the 54 mile stretch between cities.
This crucial activism paved the way for the Voting Rights Act, which passed just a few months later.
Even though we have eliminated Jim Crow laws like poll taxes (which AL held onto in state elections until 1966 when courts struck them down), we are seeing a resurgence of legislation like voter ID laws that disenfranchise voters of color across the state.https://www.aclualabama.org/en/press-releases/civil-rights-groups-support-lawsuit-challenging-alabamas-voter-id-law …
And so, just as the Selma march was a journey that took years of organizing and activism, that journey continues today. We must keep fighting discriminatory laws. We must keep restoring rights to those who have lost them. And we must keep educating and empowering each other.
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