{"id":29937,"date":"2018-03-21T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T14:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=29937"},"modified":"2022-03-21T07:40:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T11:40:10","slug":"1965-newspaper-coverage-of-mlk-led-selma-to-montgomery-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/1965-newspaper-coverage-of-mlk-led-selma-to-montgomery-march.html","title":{"rendered":"1965 Newspaper Coverage of MLK-Led Selma-to-Montgomery March"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the third \u2013 and, this time, successful \u2013 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, the press knew this was a big story. The first march, on 7 March 1965, was stopped by police violence: the Alabama state and local police beat up the 600 peaceful marchers in Selma, injuring dozens and sending 17 to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: on \u201cBloody Sunday,\u201d Alabama police attack Selma-to-Montgomery marchers, 7 March 1965. Credit: U.S. Department of Justice; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The horrific pictures and news stories of this \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d police rampage shocked the nation, and especially grabbed the attention of President Lyndon Johnson. Eight days later, on March 15, he made an important speech to Congress introducing voting rights legislation, and on 6 August 1965 he signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.<\/p>\n

The three Selma-to-Montgomery marches vividly publicized the lack of African American voting rights in Alabama, and roused the nation, Congress and the president to act. Two days after the \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d initial march, Dr. King (who had missed that march) led a second attempt \u2013 but ended it after symbolically crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the earlier police violence had occurred, deciding to wait for a court order to make the march fully legal.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: police watch marchers turn around after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Tuesday, 9 March 1965. Credit: U.S. Department of Justice; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 21 March 1965, supported by that court order, the third march began.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, 21 March 1965. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following three newspaper articles, all provided by the Associated Press<\/em>, present details of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. The first article reports on the march itself, the next two show some of the resistance and hateful opposition confronting the marchers and their campaign for voting rights.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 22 March 1965, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

King Leads Thousands On Voting Rights Trek<\/strong><\/p>\n

Army Troops Protect Pilgrimage Marchers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throng Halts After 8-Mile Walk To Camp Ground;<\/strong>
\nBuses Haul Most Back To Selma For Night\u2019s Rest<\/strong><\/p>\n

SELMA, Ala. (AP) \u2013 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands Sunday in a massive highway pilgrimage heavily guarded by Army troops and told his tired followers at the end of the eight-mile walk they were part of \u201can unstoppable movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

King walked at the head of his civil rights legions on the first leg of a 50-mile, five-day march to the Alabama capital to protest denial of Negro voting rights.<\/p>\n

When they reached their first overnight camp ground \u2013 a cow pasture dotted by four large tents \u2013 King said the march \u201cwould give people all over the country a sense of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said he was physically tired but that this was offset by \u201cthe inner rewarding element\u201d he felt.<\/p>\n

At dusk, trucks and chartered buses carried all but 300 of the marchers to a special train to be returned to Selma for the night. Most will rejoin the march when it resumes Monday.<\/p>\n

The people of this area, King said, \u201capparently have resigned themselves that the Negro movement is an unstoppable movement and that they cannot stand on the beach and hold the tide back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parade had a tide of marchers.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s aide, the Rev. James Bevel, said a close count showed 8,000 in the ranks. King himself had estimated that 10,000 were massed at a church where the march began. Other observers numbered the marchers at more than 5,000.<\/p>\n

The first step was taken at 12:48 p.m. (CST).<\/p>\n

It was the fulfillment of a long-held hope of King who compared the march to the famous march to the sea by India\u2019s Mohandas K. Gandhi.<\/p>\n

In the eight-abreast columns spread out for nearly one mile along U.S. 80 were scores of political figures, clergymen, students and also union leaders and entertainment figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is America\u2019s cause,\u201d King said before leading the throngs from old Brown\u2019s Chapel A.M.E. Church in a Negro housing project. \u201cWe are standing together to make it clear that we are determined to make brotherhood a reality for all men.\u201d<\/p>\n

King, who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, was joined by another Nobel Prize winner, Ralph Bunche of the United Nations staff. Scores of political figures, movie stars, union leaders and clergymen marched.<\/p>\n

At Montgomery \u2013 target of the massive march \u2013 about 50 cars occupied by Ku Klux Klansmen drove through the city in a motorcade protesting the march. Federal troops and FBI agents watched the Klansmen.<\/p>\n

The highway pilgrimage began under heavy guard by federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and regular Army troops called up Saturday by President Johnson.<\/p>\n

The President kept in close touch with the developments from his Texas ranch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are tired of waiting,\u201d King said before leading the march from the church. \u201cWe have waited 345 years for freedom and the day is at hand.\u201d He said later that referred to the date when the first Negro slaves came to America.<\/p>\n

The marching columns moved from the old church, through a white residential area and downtown Selma. Then they crossed Pettus Bridge and onto the highway.<\/p>\n

At Craig Air Force Base, a crowd of white spectators yelled, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you go home?\u201d<\/p>\n

A car driven by a white man moved by. On its side were painted the words: \u201cGo home, scum. We love Selma.\u201d<\/p>\n

White youths in a car emblazoned with \u201cI hate niggers\u201d were stopped by Guardsmen and told to leave the area. The tough-looking Guardsmen cleared out spectators along the way after the marchers passed.<\/p>\n

Jeeps Patrol Road<\/p>\n

Army jeeps patrolled the highway. Two state patrol cars moved ahead of the marching columns to block traffic.<\/p>\n

Carbine-armed soldiers stood guard around the campsite, eight miles from Selma. Four giant tents were put up off a small side road.<\/p>\n

Traffic piled up for miles when the marchers swung from the left lanes and crossed the two other lanes to set up camp for the night.<\/p>\n

When the marchers stopped about five miles from Selma, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, King\u2019s close associate, said they were making excellent progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like we just got started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bunche looked weary from the long hike. He smiled wryly and said: \u201cI feel better than my legs do. I think I\u2019m holding up well. I don\u2019t know how long I will stay with the march.\u201d<\/p>\n

King told newsmen he would fly to Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday for a day in his honor and would return that night. Abernathy said he would leave Tuesday also for a trip to Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

King wore a black overcoat as he began the march. He was hatless as usual but a Hawaiian lei was draped around his neck.<\/p>\n

Thousands massed in the street before the procession started.<\/p>\n

National Guardsmen in olive battle fatigues cleared a way through the throngs milling in the street.<\/p>\n

Two Army helicopters hovered overhead, poised on emptiness like giant hummingbirds.<\/p>\n

American and United Nations flags sprang up in the ranks of marchers. The columns moved eight abreast, arm-in-arm, in ranks three feet apart.<\/p>\n

They were of many types and descriptions \u2013 white-collared clergymen, beatniks with beards, college students in denims and sweaters, and old men and women, teenagers and babies.<\/p>\n

There were no white spectators in the area where the march began.<\/p>\n

Israelites\u2019 Flight Recalled<\/p>\n

A mile away, however, across the Alabama River Bridge at the outskirts of the business district, hundreds of white persons grouped beside the highway.<\/p>\n

Cars with signs opposing the march appeared there. They included such legends as \u201cMartin Luther King\u2019s County\u201d and \u201cI Hate Niggers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff James G. Clark, the symbol of white resistance to the civil rights drive here, told newsmen as the march began: \u201cThey have gotten everything they wanted from the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next two articles were published by the Plain Dealer<\/em>, reporting on events that occurred the day before the march began.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 21 March 1965, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

Bishop Calls March \u2018Disservice\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) \u2013 The resident Methodist Bishop of Alabama, the Rev. W. Kenneth Goodson of Birmingham, said yesterday he views the proposed civil rights march to Montgomery \u201cas doing a great disservice to the cause of human freedom\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodson said in a statement that the Selma-to-Montgomery march would delay \u201cstill further the struggle for reconciliation which surely awaits all of us who call Alabama home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishop said his feeling \u201cis so strong against this proposed march that I counsel all Methodist[s] against participation\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he strongly advises any outside Methodists \u2013 ministers, bishops or laymen \u2013 \u201cto return to their homes, where I am sure there is ample responsibility and opportunity for Christian witness and service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 21 March 1965, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

200 Whites Protest \u2019Bama Rights March<\/strong><\/p>\n

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2013 About 200 white persons marched to the Federal Building here yesterday under the leadership of a segregationist group to protest the Selma-to-Montgomery march by civil rights advocates.<\/p>\n

The group, headed by leaders of the Organization for Better Government, carried placards saying \u201cOutside Clergy, Go Home,\u201d \u201cPious Phonies, Go Home,\u201d \u201cLBJ and MLK, Get Off Our Backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the leaders, the Rev. Russell Pate, an Evangelist, denounced what he called a mockery of religion professed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and ministers from other states who have demonstrated in Selma and Montgomery.<\/p>\n

Pate said: \u201cI do not believe in integration and I believe I have the Bible to back me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He blamed the downfall of the Roman Empire on intermarriage and predicted the same thing could happen to America.<\/p>\n

Pate closed by saying: \u201cI beg President Johnson to let us alone and leave us in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another speaker introduced as a Montgomery businessman, D. H. Hammonds, said that the purpose of yesterday\u2019s demonstration was to stop the Selma march and get the agitators and beatniks out of Alabama.<\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/strong><\/p>\n