As people were getting ready for a nighttime march, police troopers attacked the crowd. Many people were wounded, and 27 year old Jimmie Lee Jackson was fatally shot while trying to protect his mother from a beating from state troopers. He died 8 days later.
Dr. King's National Appeal
On Sunday Morning, March 7th 1965, hundreds left brown and were met by state troopers and local police. The troopers viscously beat them in a police riot that became known as Bloody Sunday
President Johnson Federalizes the Alabama National Guard
The Alabama National Guard is now under Federal, not State power.
President Johnson addresses the riots, calling them an "American Tragedy". Later, in an address to congress, the president asked for passage of a voting rights act, saying, "Their cause must be our cause too". He ended his speech with the words of the civil rights song, "We shall overcome!"
President Johnson passes the the Voting Rights Act of 1965
America! I now present you with the Voting Rights Act. This law will suspend literacy tests and other discriminatory voting rules, and will provide federal government oversight of election procedures to prevent discrimination.
After Bloody Sunday, Dr King made a national appeal, asking clergy from around the country to come to Selma to join a second march. Not only clergy answered the call, but thousands of people, white and black poured into the city.
The court finally ruled in favor of the marchers, and so President Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard, thereby placing them under federal control. He sent troops to line the highway route to protect the marchers
I order 2,000 US army troops, 100 FBI agents and 100 federal marshals to help the marchers.
As a result of the Selma demonstrations, President Johnson urged passage of a low to protect voting rights, which Congress passed later that year as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Some believe that this act has had the most far-reaching effect of any civil rights legislation in promoting equality for African Americans, till this day.