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Today in History: “Bloody Sunday” Rocks the Civil Rights Movement
03/07/10
On March 7, 1965, a group of peaceful African-American protesters was attacked and savagely beaten by Alabama law enforcement officers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery to publicize the ongoing campaign for equal black voting rights in the South. Newspaper photographs and television footage from this brutal incident, which became known as “Bloody Sunday,” stunned people across the country and generated widespread support for the civil rights movement.
The violent conclusion to the Selma-Montgomery Voting Rights March also made an impact on President Lyndon B. Johnson. On March 15, Johnson delivered a speech before Congress called “The American Promise” in which he announced plans to introduce strong new legislation to secure African-American voting rights in the South. (We are unable to display the text of the document at this time. To view the text of Johnson’s speech, please visit this website: http://millercenter.org/scripps/digitalarchive/speeches/spe_1965_0315_johnson.) A few months later Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential laws in U.S. history.