Bloody Sunday

Profile

March 7, 1965
Notable: Event
Nation: America

Media

YouTube Video

Podcast

Show Notes

A march was organized to protest the fatal shooting of Jimmy Lee Jackson who was killed during a previous protest in the nearby town of Marion, AL. When protesters arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Confederate general and grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, they found a wall of state troopers and white onlookers on the other side.

When the protesters refused to turn back , the troopers released tear gas and attacked them with billy clubs. The media was on hand and footage from Bloody Sunday was televised around the world which helped to bring national attention to the event. Bloody Sunday and the other Selma to Montgomery marches eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Works Cited

• Kindig, Jessie. “Bloody Sunday Protest March, Selma, Alabama, March 7, 1965 • BlackPast.” BlackPast, 27 Mar. 2019, blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965.
• Klein, Christopher. “Remembering Selma’s ‘Bloody Sunday.’” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 6 Mar. 2015, www.history.com/news/selmas-bloody-sunday-50-years-ago.
• “We Shall Overcome — Selma-to-Montgomery March.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm.

Disclosure: Noire Histoir is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the website to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Noire Histoir will receive commissions for purchases made via any Amazon Affiliate links above.