Selma to Montgomery marches

==Second march: "Turnaround Tuesday"==
[[Image:Bloody Sunday-officers await demonstrators.jpeg|thumb|right|Police watch marchers turn around on Tuesday, March 9, 1965.]]

Bevel, King, Nash, and others began organizing a second march to be held on Tuesday, March 9, 1965. They issued a call for clergy and citizens from across the country to join them. Awakened to issues of civil and voting rights by years of [[Civil Rights Movement]] activities, and shocked by the television images of "Bloody Sunday," hundreds of people responded to SCLC's call.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

To prevent another outbreak of violence, SCLC attempted to gain a [[court order]] that would prohibit the police from interfering. Instead of issuing the court order, U.S. District Court Judge [[Frank Minis Johnson]] issued a [[restraining order]], prohibiting the march from taking place until he could hold additional hearings later in the week.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

Based on past experience, some in SCLC were confident that Judge Johnson would eventually lift the restraining order. They did not want to alienate one of the few southern judges who had displayed sympathy to their cause by violating his injunction. In addition, they did not yet have sufficient infrastructure in place to support the long march, one for which the marchers were ill-equipped. They knew that violating a court order could result in punishment for contempt, even if the order is later reversed.<ref>See ''Walker v. City of Birmingham'', 388 U.S. 307 1967, citing ''Howat v. Kansas'', 258 U.S. 181 (1922).</ref> But some movement activists, both local and from around the country, were determined to march on Tuesday to protest both the "Bloody Sunday" violence and the systematic denial of black voting rights in Alabama. Both Hosea Williams and James Forman argued that the march must proceed and by the early morning of the march date, and after much debate, Dr. King had decided to lead people to Montgomery.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

Assistant Attorney General John Doar and former Florida governor [[LeRoy Collins]], representing President [[Lyndon Johnson]], went to Selma to meet with King and others at [[Richie Jean Jackson]]'s house<ref name="preserve"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://alabama.travel/road-trips/selma-to-montgomery-crossing-a-bridge-into-history|title=Selma to Montgomery: Crossing a Bridge Into History – Alabama Road Trips – Alabama.Travel|work=Alabama's Official Travel Guide}}</ref> and privately urged King to postpone the march. The SCLC president told them that his conscience demanded that he proceed, and that many movement supporters, especially in SNCC, would go ahead with the march even if he told them it should be called off. Collins suggested to King that he make a symbolic witness at the bridge, then turn around and lead the marchers back to Selma. King told them that he would try to enact the plan provided that Collins could ensure that law enforcement would not attack them. Collins obtained this guarantee from Sheriff Clark and Al Lingo in exchange for a guarantee that King would follow a precise route drawn up by Clark.<ref name="books.google.com">David Garrow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VmmrBgAAQBAJ&q=leroy_collins%2C_lingo%2C_clark&pg=PT851 ''Bearing the Cross''] (Vintage edition, 1993), pp. 401–405.</ref>

On the morning of March 9, a day that would become known as "Turnaround Tuesday",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/chronologyentry/1965_03_09|title=Martin Luther King and the Global Freedom Struggle |publisher=[[Stanford University#Research centers and institutes|Stanford University {{!}} Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute]] |access-date=October 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913193059/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/chronologyentry/1965_03_09|archive-date=September 13, 2014|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Collins handed Dr. King the secretly agreed route. King led about 2,500 marchers out on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and held a short prayer session before turning them around, thereby obeying the court order preventing them from making the full march, and following the agreement made by Collins, Lingo, and Clark. He did not venture across the border into the unincorporated area of the county, even though the police unexpectedly stood aside to let them enter.<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref>Eliza Berman, [http://time.com/3733726/leroy-collins-selma/ "How a Little-Known Government Agency Kept the Peace in Selma"], ''Time'', March 25, 2015.</ref>

As only SCLC leaders had been told in advance of the plan, many marchers felt confusion and consternation, including those who had traveled long distances to participate and oppose police brutality. King asked them to remain in Selma for another march to take place after the injunction was lifted.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

That evening, three white Unitarian Universalist ministers in Selma for the march were attacked on the street and beaten with clubs by four [[KKK]] members.<ref name="The March to Montgomery">[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis65.htm The March to Montgomery] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive.</ref> The worst injured was Reverend [[James Reeb]] from [[Boston]]. Fearing that Selma's public hospital would refuse to treat Reeb, activists took him to Birmingham's University Hospital, two hours away. Reeb died on Thursday, March 11 at University Hospital, with his wife by his side.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/witnesses/reeb.htm |title=James Reeb |first=Neil |last=Baumgartner |work=Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia |publisher=[[Ferris State University]] |date=December 2012 |access-date=2015-01-16}}</ref>

===Response to the second march===
James Reeb's death provoked mourning throughout the country, and tens of thousands held vigils in his honor. President Johnson called Reeb's widow and father to express his condolences (he would later invoke Reeb's memory when he delivered a draft of the Voting Rights Act to Congress).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/reeb-james|title='James Reeb' King Encyclopedia |date=June 21, 2017 |access-date=December 4, 2019 }}</ref>

Blacks in Dallas County and the Black Belt mourned the death of Reeb, as they had earlier mourned the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson. But many activists were bitter that the media and national political leaders expressed great concern over the murder of Reeb, a northern white in Selma, but had paid scant attention to that of Jackson, a local African American. [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee|SNCC]] organizer [[Stokely Carmichael]] argued that "the movement itself is playing into the hands of [[racism]], because what you want as a nation is to be upset when anybody is killed [but] for it to be recognized, a white person must be killed. Well, what are you saying?"<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_106.html "Bridge to Freedom" episode] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203061230/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/pt_106.html |date=February 3, 2017 }}, ''Eyes on the Prize'' series, PBS_WGBH.</ref>

Dr. King's credibility in the movement was shaken by the secret turnaround agreement. [[David Garrow]] notes that King publicly "waffled and dissembled" on how his final decision had been made. On some occasions King would inaccurately claim that "no pre-arranged agreement existed", but under oath before Judge Johnson, he acknowledged that there had been a "tacit agreement". Criticism of King by radicals in the movement became increasingly pronounced, with James Forman calling Turnaround Tuesday, "a classic example of trickery against the people".<ref name="books.google.com"/>

==== James Reeb's memorial service ====
[[File:Plaque J Reeb.jpg|thumb|upright|Monument for James Reeb in Selma, Alabama]]

Following the death of James Reeb, a memorial service was held at the Brown's Chapel AME Church on March 15, 1965.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|title=Selma and Sharpeville {{!}} Stereotypes of Brutal Power {{!}} Commonweal Magazine|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/selma-and-sharpeville-stereotypes-brutal-power|website=www.commonwealmagazine.org|date=April 9, 1965 |access-date=2020-05-12}}</ref> Among those who addressed the packed congregation were Dr. King, labor leader [[Walter Reuther]], and some clergymen.<ref name="auto1"/> A picture of King, Reuther, Greek Orthodox [[Archbishop Iakovos of America|Archbishop Iakovos]] and others in Selma for Reeb's memorial service appeared on the cover of Life magazine on March 26, 1965.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The images every Greek American should see on Martin Luther King Jr. Day|url=https://medium.com/@HellenicLeaders/the-images-every-greek-american-should-see-on-martin-luther-king-jr-day-6648d6fbbbd3|last=Leaders|first=Hellenic|date=2017-01-16|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=2020-05-12}}</ref> After the memorial service, upon getting permission from the courts, the leaders and attendees marched from the Brown's Chapel AME Church to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma.<ref name="auto1"/>

====Actions in Montgomery====
With the second march turned and its organizers awaiting a judicial order to safely proceed, [[Tuskegee Institute]] students, led by Gwen Patton and [[Sammy Younge Jr.]], decided to open a "Second Front" by marching to the [[Alabama State Capitol]] and delivering a petition to Governor Wallace. They were quickly joined by [[James Forman]] and much of the SNCC staff from Selma. The SNCC members distrusted King more than ever after the "turnaround", and were eager to take a separate course. On March 11, SNCC began a series of demonstrations in Montgomery, and put out a national call for others to join them. [[James Bevel]], SCLC's Selma leader, followed them and discouraged their activities, bringing him and SCLC into conflict with Forman and SNCC. Bevel accused Forman of trying to divert people from the Selma campaign and of abandoning nonviolent discipline. Forman accused Bevel of driving a wedge between the student movement and the local black churches. The argument was resolved only when both were arrested.<ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/timhis65.htm#1965m2mtial1 "1965 – Students March in Montgomery; Confrontation at Dexter Church"], Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref>

On March 15 and 16, SNCC led several hundred demonstrators, including Alabama students, Northern students, and local adults, in protests near the capitol complex. The Montgomery County sheriff's posse met them on horseback and drove them back, whipping them. Against the objections of James Bevel, some protesters threw bricks and bottles at police. At a mass meeting on the night of the 16th, Forman "whipped the crowd into a frenzy" demanding that the President act to protect demonstrators, and warned, "If we can't sit at the table of democracy, we'll knock the fucking legs off."<ref>Gary May, ''Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy'' (Basic Books, 2013), pp. 107, 126.</ref><ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/timhis65.htm#1965m2mtial2 "1965-Protests and Police Violence Continue in Montgomery; Brutal Attack in Montgomery"], Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' featured the Montgomery confrontations on the front page the next day.<ref name="ReferenceC">[http://crmvet.org/tim/timhis65.htm#1965m2mmar17 "1965 – Wednesday, March 17"], Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref> Although King was concerned by Forman's violent rhetoric, he joined him in leading a march of 2000 people in Montgomery to the Montgomery County courthouse.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

According to historian Gary May, "City officials, also worried by the violent turn of events&nbsp;... apologized for the assault on SNCC protesters and invited King and Forman to discuss how to handle future protests in the city." In the negotiations, Montgomery officials agreed to stop using the county posse against protesters, and to issue march permits to blacks for the first time.<ref>May, [https://archive.org/details/bendingtowardjus0000mayg <!-- quote="table of democracy". --> ''Bending Toward Justice''] (2013), p. 129.</ref>

Governor Wallace did not negotiate, however. He continued to have state police arrest any demonstrators who ventured onto Alabama State property of the capitol complex.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>
====Actions at the White House====
On March 11, seven Selma solidarity activists [[Sit-in|sat-in]] at the East Wing of the White House until arrested.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/diary/1965/650311.asp |title='The President's Daily Diary: March 11, 1965' LBJ Library and Museum |access-date=November 19, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115013748/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/diary/1965/650311.asp |archive-date=January 15, 2015 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Dozens of other protesters also tried to occupy the White House that weekend but were stopped by guards; they blocked Pennsylvania Avenue instead. On March 12, President Johnson had an unusually belligerent meeting with a group of civil rights advocates including [[Bishop Paul Moore]], [[Robert Spike|Reverend Robert Spike]], and SNCC representative [[H. Rap Brown]]. Johnson complained that the White House protests were disturbing his family. The activists were unsympathetic and demanded to know why he hadn't delivered the voting rights bill to Congress yet, or sent federal troops to Alabama to protect the protesters.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/article/h-rap-brownjamil-al-amin-profoundly-american-story Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, "H. Rap Brown/ Jamil Al-Amin: A Profoundly American Story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111191245/http://www.thenation.com/article/h-rap-brownjamil-al-amin-profoundly-american-story |date=November 11, 2014 }}, ''The Nation'' February 28, 2002.</ref><ref>Branch, ''At Canaan's Edge'', p. 93.</ref> In this same period, SNCC, [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]], and other groups continued to organize protests in more than eighty cities, actions that included 400 people blocking the entrances and exits of the Los Angeles Federal Building.<ref>Gary May, ''Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy'' (Basic Books, 2013), p. 94.</ref>

President Johnson told the press that he refused to be "blackjacked" into action by unruly "pressure groups".<ref>Robert Young, [http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1965/03/13/page/34/article/a-kind-of-anger]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202011225/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1965/03/13/page/34/article/a-kind-of-anger/|date=December 2, 2014}}<span> "Johnson won't be 'blackjacked into force by pressure groups</span>{{'"}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202011225/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1965/03/13/page/34/article/a-kind-of-anger/|date=December 2, 2014}}, ''Chicago Tribune'' March 13, 1965.</ref> The next day he arranged a personal meeting with Governor Wallace, urging him to use the [[Alabama National Guard]] to protect marchers. He also began preparing the final draft of his [[Voting Rights Act of 1965|voting rights bill]].<ref name="Dallek-Robert-flawed-giant-lbj-215-217"/>

On March 11, Attorney General Katzenbach announced that the federal government was intending to prosecute local and state officials who were responsible for the attacks on the marchers on March 7.<ref>John D. Pomfret, [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/03/12/96698619.pdf "US to Prosecute Police Over Gas Attack"], ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1965. Retrieved March 11, 2015.</ref> He would use an 1870 civil rights law as the basis for charges.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}

====Johnson's decision and the Voting Rights Act====
On March 15, the president convened a joint session of Congress, outlined his new voting rights bill, and demanded that they pass it. In a historic presentation carried nationally on live television, making use of the largest media network, Johnson praised the courage of African-American activists. He called Selma "a turning point in man's unending search for freedom" on a par with the [[Battle of Appomattox]] in the [[American Civil War]]. Johnson added that his entire [[Great Society]] program, not only the voting rights bill, was part of the Civil Rights Movement. He adopted language associated with Dr. King, declaring that "it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we ''shall'' overcome."<ref>[http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/650315.asp "President Lyndon B. Johnson's Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, March 15, 1965"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128231939/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/650315.asp |date=November 28, 2014 }}, (As delivered in person before a joint session at 9:02 p.m.)</ref> Afterward, King sent a telegram to Johnson congratulating him for his speech, calling it "the most moving eloquent unequivocal and passionate plea for human rights ever made by any president of this nation".<ref>{{cite book |last=Pauley |first=Garth E. |title=The Modern Presidency & Civil Rights: Rhetoric on Race from Roosevelt to Nixon |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2001 |page=189 |isbn=978-1585441075 |volume=3 |series=Presidential Rhetoric and Political Communication Series}}</ref> Johnson's voting rights bill was formally introduced in Congress two days later.{{citation needed|date = March 2024}}