On March 25, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of other African-Americans marched from Selma to Montgomery in the state of Alabama to gain rights for people of color. The main focus of this march was to register black voters in the South. This protest was started because southerners were not following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prevented discrimination in voting. Non violent resistance was used when Dr. King tried to lead peaceful marches but was met with a blockade of state troopers. This act of civil disobedience caught the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson who had Congress pass the Voting Rights Acts which allowed African-Americans to vote. This protest shows the ideas of Dr. King because he led the march and showed …show more content…
The events leading up to the march started in 1962 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee began protesting in Selma. In 1963, almost 400 African-American lined up to register to vote at the Dallas County Courthouse. Not many managed to register, but it is still considered a victory and the day is now known as “Freedom Day.” In 1963, King is arrested and placed in the Birmingham Jail. He writes a letter to his fellow clergymen men explaining why he is doing what he is doing and states, ”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1). On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed “which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin” (Civil Rights Act, 1). This was a huge triumph for Martin Luther King Jr. and all other civil rights activists. However, there is still discrimination. In 1965, almost 300 marchers, lead by Dr. King, go to the courthouse to register but they were told to wait outside and were left there. No one was registered. In total “only 2 percent of Selma’s eligible black voters (300 out of 15,000) had managed to register” (Selma to Montgomery March, 1). After that, many protests began out front of the