The movement for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, began years before the events of March 7, 1965, and the Selma to Montgomery march that became known as Bloody Sunday. Black citizens attempting to exercise their rights along with activists fighting for justice faced hostile opposition across the South. But ordinary people chose to challenge an unjust system through nonviolent direct action, risking their lives to achieve democratic change for themselves and future generations. This is the legacy of Selma.
Excerpted from the previously published film guide about Selma, this learning journey explores the historical context, timeline of events in Selma, and the change that was achieved. It addresses such questions as: Why were Black citizens throughout the South ready to risk their lives to secure their right to vote? How did young people make a difference? What does it take to end deeply ingrained injustice?
Historical Background of the Civil Rights Movement
After the Civil War, Congress passed and the required number of states ratified three changes to the Constitution: the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Collectively, these have become known as the Reconstruction Amendments because they were made into law during the post-Civil War period called the Reconstruction. These amendments served two main purposes: to establish the terms under which the seceded states of the Confederacy would return to the Union, and to extend freedom and full citizenship to the African Americans who had been held in slavery. On paper, these amendments promised equality.
The 13th Amendment abolished the system of chattel slavery that had existed in the United States and that had previously been allowed under the Constitution. Upon taking effect, enslaved persons became freed people, but what that meant exactly was unclear. Were they citizens? Did they have the same freedoms as other Americans? Could they vote?
The 14th Amendment settled the question of citizenship for freed African Americans: if they were born in the United States, they were “natural-born” citizens. States were forbidden to abridge their “privileges and immunities” — widely understood to include the right to vote. And, with the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses, freed African Americans were promised legal treatment equal to everyone else.
Three other sections of the amendment cleared up other post-war matters by negating the three-fifths clause of the Constitution and allowing formerly slave-holding states to have representation in Congress proportional to the full population of the state. States that denied the vote to the newly freed Black men, however, would not enjoy the increased number of representatives. Finally, the amendment disqualified ex-Confederates from holding office and repudiated the Confederate debt. The right to vote is implied in the 14th Amendment, but it is not stated explicitly.
Finally, with the addition of the 15th Amendment, questions about the voting rights of freedmen were clarified. Race, color or previous enslavement could not be used by states to deprive any male over the age of 21 the right to vote.
The Reconstruction amendments brought a brief glimpse of freedom. Within five years of the end of the Civil War, four million people were no longer enslaved, were affirmed as citizens and were guaranteed the right to vote. In many Southern states, Black men were elected to high office, and Black legislators helped write new state constitutions. Fourteen African Americans served in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1870 and 1876.
But the promise of full political equality was soon broken. White supremacists and ex-Confederates used a combination of means to re-establish their power in the South. By the mid-1870s, the federal government retreated from rebuilding the South or protecting the rights of former enslaved people. In 1877, Reconstruction was effectively over and the reforms that it had brought to the South began to erode.
Black people lost the rights to travel freely, to use public transportation and to attend integrated schools. Most importantly, Black men lost the right to vote. The Ku Klux Klan, formed by Confederate veterans, used terrorism and violence to maintain white supremacy. Between 1885 and 1901 alone, more than 2,000 African Americans were lynched by Klan members or their affiliates.
By the early 20th century, a brutal and degrading system of segregation had taken root throughout the South. “Jim Crow” laws required Black people to use separate — and inferior — facilities in every aspect of life. The Supreme Court approved Jim Crow segregation in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, when it ruled that separate facilities were legal as long as they were equal. The ruling gave the green light to Southern legislatures to enact laws and uphold policies to enforce white supremacy. In practice, separate was never equal.
These Southern legislatures also created a system of laws that made it virtually impossible for Black men — and later, women — to vote. More than that, the informal system of white supremacy made it dangerous to try. Elaborate regulations limited Black voting, and anyone who tried to defy the system was punished, often brutally. Attacks on Black voters were common, but they were not the only tactic used to keep African Americans away from the polls. Southern legislatures had passed laws requiring voters to pay poll taxes, and these kept the rural poor, Black and white, disenfranchised. White voters whose ancestors had voted prior to the Civil War were exempted from the literacy and civics tests that Black would-be voters were required to take. Registrars applied the tests arbitrarily and unequally, and were not required to explain why someone attempting to register might be rejected.
In Dallas County, Alabama, local officials made it inconvenient and difficult to register to vote. The office was open only during business hours on the first and third Monday of each month. New registrants needed someone already registered to vouch for them, and registered voters were limited in the number of people for whom they could vouch each year.
Economic power was a further barrier to voter registration. White employers and landowners were likely to punish Black citizens who dared to register by firing them or throwing them off the farms they worked on as sharecroppers. For example, in Selma, employees of a local nursing home were fired in 1963 for trying to register to vote. In many towns, newspapers printed the names of all voter applicants, which made the job of intimidation even easier.
And yet, in the face of all these obstacles, Black people in Selma — especially Black youth — joined together and used nonviolent action strategies to disrupt the system and gain the right to participate fully in civic life.
The Movement for Justice and Equality in Selma, Alabama
In Selma, as in other communities, people began organizing for action during the pivotal years of the Civil Rights Movement. The Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) encouraged Black citizens to register to vote, but fear kept most would-be registrants at home. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began organizing high school students, and soon the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the efforts. Selma would no longer be a little-known city in Alabama. As the nation watched, it became a key battleground in the struggle for equality.
But why Selma? Black and white students attended separate schools and most public places remained segregated even after passage the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Selma had a locally organized justice movement, led largely by the DCVL; a history of student demonstrations, thanks to SNCC; and the city’s Black leaders were ready to welcome assistance from the SCLC. Most importantly, the hardline tactics of Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark guaranteed arrests that would attract the national spotlight.
- Watch: The PBS series Eyes on the Prize offers an accessible introduction to key ideas, figures and moments in civil rights history. The episode “Bridge to Freedom (1965)” focuses on the bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The story of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, like all stories in the Civil Rights Movement, is much more than an isolated chapter in our history. The voting rights movement illustrates how citizens in our democracy can use the rights guaranteed them in the First Amendment to contest injustice. It shows the power of activism and nonviolent action to challenge oppressive systems. And the movement illustrates young people’s energy and momentum in engaging in action that can lead to social change.