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Unit 3: Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

3.2 Selma Notes

Early in 1965 Lyndon Johnson believed Southern states needed time to absorb the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, with its comprehensive ban on segregation, before any further action could be
taken. King, however, believed a second bill was necessary to secure voting rights for African
Americans. Toward this end he decided to launch a major SCLC voter-registration drive.
SCLC member Jim Bevel suggested the drive take place in Selma, Alabama, where an unsuccessful
SNCC voter-registration drive had been going on for months.
Selma was the county seat of Dallas County in the heart of Alabama’s black belt. It provided
everything that made a media event: a segregationist mayor, a Klan—affiliated police chief,
and a very low percentage of blacks registered to vote. Of 30,000 people, slightly more than
half were black, only 350 blacks were registered. And blacks who had tried recently to register
had been deflected by slow service, odd courthouse hours, excessively difficult literacy tests,
and, of course, the threat of violence.
King first visited Selma with other SCLC members in January 1965, shortly after he returned
from Oslo, Norway. Early protests were small in number, and resulted in arrests, both in
Selma and in nearby towns. On 1 February King and Ralph Abernathy led a march of about
250 people to the Selma Courthouse to protest slow voter-registration. Both King and Abernathy
were arrested and spent five days in jail. During that time Malcolm X visited Selma. Although
he did not meet King, he wished his best to King through King’s wife before departing to
engagements elsewhere. Shortly thereafter, Malcolm X was assassinated, and this visit, more
supportive of King than earlier encounters, reflected the two leaders’ partial reconciliation at
the end of Malcolm X’s life.

The Selma campaign became bloody on the evening of 18 February when a protest march
headed for the jail of the town of Marion was attacked by a mob of whites. The streetlights
shut off and violence commenced in the dark. A young black man, Jimmy Lee Jackson, was
shot, and died eight days later.
On 5 March King flew to Washington to encourage Johnson to introduce a Voting Rights Bill.
Johnson declined, and King immediately announced plans for a massive march from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, which was 54 miles away. Governor George Wallace issued
an order prohibiting the march, but the SCLC proceeded, though King did not lead the march
himself.
On 7 March, over 500 people began walking up the four-lane highway toward Montgomery.
When they reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which crossed the Alabama River, they encountered
60 State troopers, some cavalry, and the sheriff of the town. Civilian whites also stood by. The
authorities ordered the crowd to disperse, but it refused. Moments later, the troopers began
attacking the protestors with teargas, clubs, whips, and electric cattle prods, while the white
spectators yelled encouragement. By the time the scuffle had ended, sixteen people had to be
hospitalized, and at least fifty others were injured. As in Birmingham, reporters captured
images that were subsequently broadcast nationally. These images inspired protests in Detroit,
Chicago, Toronto, New Jersey, and other cities, and caught the attention of the White House.
King announced plans for a second march, which he would lead himself. This time Wallace
obtained a federal injunction against it, but, despite this, and despite the admonition of the
Attorney General, King stuck to his word. About 1500 people participated in the second
march, more than half of them white. Clergypersons from around the country had rallied in
support, and clergypersons constituted almost a third of the crowd. When the march reached
the Edmund Pettus Bridge, it again confronted State police. This time King ordered the protestors
to disperse, a decision that would draw criticism from many fellow civil rights activists.

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