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What Does Porterfield Mean By The Selma Marches?

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On March 7, 1965, Civil Rights Protestors began the first of three major marches in Selma to campaign for African American voting rights (“Selma Marches”). These peaceful marches were ignited by the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a Civil Rights protestor gunned down by Alabama state police in February of 1965 (“Selma Marches”). Attempting to stop the Civil Rights movement, marchers met opposition from segregationists across the country, including Alabama Governor George Wallace, a famous opponent to desegregation (“Selma Marches”). According to the Chicago Defender, a historically Black newspaper, Alabama state police violently suppressed the marchers, using tear gas and abusive tactics to weaken the crowd (“Terror in Alabama” 8). Despite the violence, the resolve of the …show more content…

Porterfield’s speech to Alabama residents on March 24, 1965. In his speech, he claims that the preachers who support these marchers are supporting an immoral cause, claiming that the Selma Marches were not a case of “segregation vs. integration; it is not a question of civil rights; but it is morality vs. immorality” (Porterfield 4). Porterfield sought to discredit the Selma Marchers by labelling them as immoral people, and by this logic, unrighteous people cannot support a truly righteous cause. According to Porterfield, the immorality of the protestors further reveals itself because of accounts that marchers at the time were “guilty of committing fornication” in Selma on the streets (2). Porterfield’s reaction to the protests is to create a false narrative to back his own racist views on the Selma Marches. Akin to Representative Dickinson’s argument, Porterfield claims of promiscuous sex lack factual evidence. Thus, by unfairly disgracing the activists who marched at Selma, segregationists reveal their blind hatred towards African Americans. Segregationists also reacted to the Selma Marches by attempting to stir unease in Americans, making the false pretense that communism ignited the

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In the movie Selma, there were several historical fallacies which created controversial debates over how candid the movie industry must be to the the public. The film suggested that there was great skirmish about the bill of rights (which was officially signed and conceded into law on July 1964) between King and Johnson, it showed King continuously press an ostensibly resilient Johnson to proceed with the voting of the bill. But in fact, there was never any uncertainty that there would be a voting on the rights bill; the struggle was merely fictional and made no historical sense. King and Johnson had a remarkable relationship; two men from different backgrounds, responsibilities and constituencies, formed an alliance to pass the bill of rights. “This faux tension was clearly added to make the movie more dramatic” (‘Selma’ vs History, 2013).

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On March 7, 1965, Negroes began a march to protest their voting rights. They planned a 54 mile march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, and planned to do so in a peaceful and orderly mile. They reached the top of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and looked down to see a detachment of over 60 state troopers, several Dallas County sheriffs, and Dallas county officers on horses. The Negroes were then given two minutes to disperse, and were then attacked with billy clubs, tear gas, nausea gas, and smoke canisters. It quickly became known in American history as Bloody Sunday, and was a major act of injustice that later helped African Americans obtain equal rights.

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Johnson had organised for the marchers to be protected by state troopers and forbade police from stopping protestors. The marchers covered several miles per day and camped in fields and the backyards of supporters. The number of marchers increased daily and even Alabama Assistant Attorney General John Doar and Ramsy Clark, and former Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall, among were other representatives that joined the march. Thousands of black and white supporters met the demonstrators at the state capitol building in Montgomery where Martin Luther King and other leaders addressed the crowds. The event received full media coverage, as it was televised.

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