The Encyclopedia of Alabama

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Library of Congress

Jim Clark

Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday Demonstrators

Tear Gas

Surrounded by Police

Marchers Resting

Marchers Along U.S. Highway 80

On the Capitol Steps

Civil Rights Marchers

Celebrities

Harlem March

Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark (helmeted) led efforts by Selma law enforcement to keep African Americans from voting in the days leading up to the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

State troopers and sheriff's deputies attack demonstrators on March 7, 1965, during the Selma to Montgomery March. The day quickly came to be known as "Bloody Sunday."

Voting rights demonstrators move an incapacitated woman from the fray during Bloody Sunday, the March 7, 1965, law enforcement attack on Selma to Montgomery marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

State troopers and sheriff's deputies tear gassed demonstrators on May 7, 1965, during the Selma to Montgomery March. The day would later would be named "Bloody Sunday."

These demonstrators were surrounded by Montgomery police as the Selma to Montgomery March ended in March 1965.

Selma to Montgomery marchers covered the approximately 50 miles between the two cities in four days, resting in fields along the side of the road.

The number of Selma to Montgomery marchers was reduced as they traveled along a two-lane stretch of U.S.Highway 80 in Lowndes County, but increased again as the demonstrators neared Montgomery.

More than 20,000 demonstrators arrived at the capitol steps in Montgomery on March 25, 1965, concluding the Selma to Montgomery March.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a diverse group of 8,000 out of Selma to march on Montgomery on March 21 under protection of federal marshals and the Alabama National Guard.

Celebrity entertainers Joan Baez and Susan Sarandon participated in the Selma to Montgomery March in March 1965.

Roughly 15,000 marchers paraded in Harlem, New York, on March 15, 1965, to support civil rights efforts in Alabama.