1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,960
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eves, and welcome to this Day in History Class,

2
00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:09,720
Speaker 1: a show that on covers history one day at a time.

3
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:23,200
Speaker 1: Today is March seven. The day was March seventh, nineteen.

4
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,440
Speaker 1: A group of about six hundred marchers in Selma, Alabama,

5
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,839
Speaker 1: headed east on US Route eight. The group was just

6
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 1: beginning a fifty four mile trek to the state capitol

7
00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:41,559
Speaker 1: in Montgomery. Led by John Lewis and Josea Williams. The

8
00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: group of protesters included Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee members,

9
00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,840
Speaker 1: Southern Christian Leadership Council members, and other activists. They were

10
00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:55,840
Speaker 1: marching to protest violations of black civil rights and to

11
00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:00,240
Speaker 1: recognize the life and death of protester Jimmy Lee Jackson,

12
00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,600
Speaker 1: a black man who was shot by an Alabama state

13
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,760
Speaker 1: trooper a few weeks before during a civil rights demonstration.

14
00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,560
Speaker 1: They walked the six blocks to the Edmund Pettis Bridge,

15
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,840
Speaker 1: crossing over the Alabama River and heading towards Montgomery, but

16
00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:22,680
Speaker 1: their progress was halted by Alabama State troopers and local police,

17
00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,279
Speaker 1: who told them to turn around. The marchers stood their ground,

18
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:32,440
Speaker 1: but the officers responded with force. The assault that followed

19
00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,280
Speaker 1: caused a national outcry, and the day came to be

20
00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:40,840
Speaker 1: known as Bloody Sunday. In the years leading up to

21
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,160
Speaker 1: Bloody Sunday, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, or SNAKE

22
00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,800
Speaker 1: as it was known, and the Southern Christian Leadership Council,

23
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:53,360
Speaker 1: also known as SCLC, we're working to register black voters

24
00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:58,040
Speaker 1: in Dallas County, Alabama. The Civil Rights Act of nineteen

25
00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:03,480
Speaker 1: sixty four banned segregation in public places, employment discrimination based

26
00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,760
Speaker 1: on race, and prohibited the unequal application of voting requirements.

27
00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,920
Speaker 1: But despite the acts provisions to strengthen voting rights for

28
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 1: black people in the South, states and election officials continued

29
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,000
Speaker 1: to use voter suppression tactics to bar black people from voting.

30
00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,600
Speaker 1: For instance, Jim Crow laws required people to pass literacy

31
00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,520
Speaker 1: tests or to pay poll taxes, which many poor and

32
00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,639
Speaker 1: black people couldn't afford to be able to vote. One

33
00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:37,000
Speaker 1: of the places where segregationist ideals and these voter suppression

34
00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:43,240
Speaker 1: tactics were rampant was Dallas County, Alabama, so organizers decided

35
00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,440
Speaker 1: to focus their efforts on Selma, the county seat of

36
00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:52,160
Speaker 1: Dallas County, But Alabama segregationist governor George C. Wallace and

37
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:57,120
Speaker 1: the local county sheriff pushed back against these voter registration campaigns.

38
00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,720
Speaker 1: The registration office was open only two days per month

39
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:05,160
Speaker 1: and people had to fill out four page forms and

40
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,359
Speaker 1: take literacy tests to get the vote. Because of the suppression,

41
00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:12,920
Speaker 1: only about two percent of the eligible black voters in

42
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:18,680
Speaker 1: Selma were registered. SNICK intensified its voting rights campaign in

43
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,240
Speaker 1: Selma from nineteen sixty one to nineteen sixty four, especially

44
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:27,280
Speaker 1: after the Civil Rights Act was passed, but their effort

45
00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,800
Speaker 1: was still met with violence from local officials, and in

46
00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,600
Speaker 1: July nineteen sixty four, Dallas County Circuit Court Judge James

47
00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,760
Speaker 1: Hair issued an injunction that forbade gatherings of three or

48
00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,720
Speaker 1: more people to discuss civil rights or voter registration and Selma.

49
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,480
Speaker 1: So the Dallas County Voters League enlisted the help of

50
00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,760
Speaker 1: the s c l C and its president, Dr. Martin

51
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,640
Speaker 1: Luther King, Jr. The s c l c's goal was

52
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,080
Speaker 1: to bring black voting rights to national attention and to

53
00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:03,440
Speaker 1: get a Voting It's Act, So in January and February

54
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:07,000
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty five, the s c l C led

55
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:11,880
Speaker 1: demonstrations to the Dallas County Courthouse. Teachers organized a march

56
00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:18,279
Speaker 1: thousands of demonstrators were arrested, including King, Ralph Abernathy, Amelia Boynton,

57
00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,839
Speaker 1: John Lewis, and jose A Williams, and Jim Clark. The

58
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:28,719
Speaker 1: county sheriff led a violent resistance. In early February, President

59
00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:32,760
Speaker 1: Lyndon B. Johnson announced his support of the Selma campaign

60
00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:36,480
Speaker 1: and his plans to implore Congress to enact a voting

61
00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:41,920
Speaker 1: rights bill. But on February eighteenth, state trooper James Bernard

62
00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:46,080
Speaker 1: Fowler shot twenty six year old deacon and activists Jimmy

63
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:51,799
Speaker 1: Lee Jackson during a protest in Marion, Alabama. Jackson died

64
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,520
Speaker 1: about a week later. So King announced the plan for

65
00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,640
Speaker 1: a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the injustices

66
00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:04,360
Speaker 1: Levy on Black people in America, and on March six,

67
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:08,320
Speaker 1: George C. Wallace told state troopers to take whatever means

68
00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 1: necessary to keep the march from happening. On March seven,

69
00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:18,560
Speaker 1: the marchers set out anyway. Alabama State troopers, some on horseback,

70
00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,919
Speaker 1: stopped them as they attempted to leave Selma. When the

71
00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,760
Speaker 1: marchers refused to turn around and instead asked to speak

72
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,919
Speaker 1: to the officer who had commanded them to stop, the

73
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,760
Speaker 1: officers beat them with billy clubs and bullwhips, spat on

74
00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:38,239
Speaker 1: them and overran them with horses. More than fifty people

75
00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:43,240
Speaker 1: were injured. The whole assault was televised. Over the next

76
00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:48,159
Speaker 1: few days. More demonstrations took place around the country. King

77
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 1: even called for another march on the ninth, but he

78
00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:56,600
Speaker 1: ended up dispersing the crowd. But on March one, about

79
00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:00,839
Speaker 1: two thousand people set out from Selma, this time protected

80
00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:04,000
Speaker 1: by U. S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard.

81
00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:08,560
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of people joined the marchers in Montgomery

82
00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:13,600
Speaker 1: when they arrived on March, and on August six, President

83
00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,960
Speaker 1: Johnson signed into law the Voting Rights Act, which aimed

84
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,279
Speaker 1: to end the suppression of black people's voting rights. That's

85
00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:26,279
Speaker 1: not to say voter suppression ended there, but the march

86
00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:31,200
Speaker 1: was a milestone in the American civil rights movement. I'm

87
00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,320
Speaker 1: Eaves Jeff Coote, and hopefully you know a little more

88
00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,799
Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. Get more notes

89
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:43,679
Speaker 1: from history on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at T d

90
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:48,520
Speaker 1: i h C Podcast. Thanks for joining me on this

91
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,840
Speaker 1: trip through time. See you here in the exact same

92
00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:52,720
Speaker 1: spot tomorrow.