USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies.

Detailed explanation-2: -As many as 25, 000 people participated in the roughly 50-mile (80-km) march. Together, these events became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Detailed explanation-3: -SCLC had chosen to focus its efforts in Selma because they anticipated that the notorious brutality of local law enforcement under Sheriff Jim Clark would attract national attention and pressure President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to enact new national voting rights legislation.

Detailed explanation-4: -On March 7, 1965, peaceful protesters marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, were brutally attacked by state troopers. News of what became known as “Bloody Sunday” swept across America, galvanizing public opinion behind voting reform and prompting Congress to pass the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Detailed explanation-5: -The nexus of the voting rights campaign of the 1960s, Selma was the starting point for three marches in support of African-Americans’ right to vote. These marches were crucial to the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.