CIVIL RIGHTS MARCHERS ATTACKED WITH CLUBS & TEAR GAS
Selma, Alabama (JFK+50) On March 7, 1965, 600 marchers demonstrating for voting rights were brutally attacked with clubs and tear gas by state and local police here in Selma.
After crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge, the group, led by John Lewis* of SNCC (Southern Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) and Rev. Hosea Williams** of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, were confronted by authorities.
17 marchers were injured and hospitalized. Leaders of the march said that despite the attacks, more marches would follow. Of the 15,000 blacks in Dallas County in 1961 only 130 were registered to vote.
"Bloody Sunday" was one of the key events leading to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
*John Lewis was born to a family of sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama in 1940. He graduated from Alabama Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University. JL was chairman of SNCC during the civil rights era and one of the original 13 Freedom Riders.
**Hosea Lorenzo Williams (1926-2000) was born in Attapulgus, Georgia & survived a German attack as a US Army soldier in WWII. HLW received the Purple Heart. HLW became a businessman, ordained minister & leader in the civil rights movement.
SOURCE
"5 things to know about Bloody Sunday this weekend," by the editors of USA Today, March 7, 2015, www.usatoday.com/
Bloody Sunday
Selma, Alabama (1965)
By Kevin Saff
at en.wikipedia
at en.wikipedia
