Selma to Montgomery marches

====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}}