Selma to Montgomery marches Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Aftermath and historical impact== [[File:Selma to Montgomery marches - historic route retouched.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail]] sign]] [[File:President Obama Delivers Remarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Selma Marches.webm|thumb|President Barack Obama's [[Barack Obama Selma 50th anniversary speech|speech marking the 50th anniversary]] of the Selma to Montgomery marches]] [[File:Leaders of the Selma-Montgomery March.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama]] The marches had a powerful effect in Washington. After witnessing TV coverage of "Bloody Sunday", President [[Lyndon Baines Johnson]] met with Governor [[George Wallace]] in Washington to discuss the civil rights situation in his state. He tried to persuade Wallace to stop the state harassment of the protesters. Two nights later, on March 15, 1965, Johnson presented a bill to a joint session of Congress. The bill was passed that summer and signed by Johnson as the [[Voting Rights Act]] on August 6, 1965.<ref name=Bending>{{cite book|last=May|first=Gary|title=Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-465-01846-8|date=2013|edition=Kindle|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bendingtowardjus0000mayg}}</ref>{{rp|168}} Johnson's televised speech before Congress was carried nationally; it was considered to be a watershed moment for the civil rights movement. He said: <blockquote>Even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause, too, because 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 name="Rubel 2002">{{cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Allen |title=The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower |publisher= DK Publishing, Inc. |year=2002}}</ref><ref name=eyes>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Juan|title=Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954β1965|year=2002|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=0140096531|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/eyesonprizeameri00will}}</ref>{{rp|278}}<ref>{{cite news|last=Wicker|first=Tom|title=Johnson Urges Congress at Joint Session to Pass Law Insuring Negro Vote|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0315.html|access-date=August 3, 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=March 15, 1965}}</ref></blockquote> Many in the Civil Rights Movement cheered the speech and were emotionally moved that after so long, and so hard a struggle, a President was finally willing to defend voting rights for blacks. According to C. T. Vivian, an SCLC activist who was with King at [[Richie Jean Jackson]]'s home when the speech was broadcast <blockquote>I looked over ... and Martin was very quietly sitting in the chair, and a tear ran down his cheek. It was a victory like none other. It was an affirmation of the movement.<ref name="Rubel 2002"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/niecy-nash-signs-up-to-play-richie-jean-jackson-in-ava-duvernays-selma|title=Niecy Nash Signs Up To Play Richie Jean Jackson In Ava Du β Shadow and Act|author=Tambay A. Obenson|date=June 4, 2014|work=Shadow and Act|access-date=January 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611023147/http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/niecy-nash-signs-up-to-play-richie-jean-jackson-in-ava-duvernays-selma|archive-date=June 11, 2014|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref></blockquote> Many others in the movement remained skeptical of the White House, believing that Johnson was culpable for having allowed violence against the movement in the early months of the campaign and was not a reliable supporter. Neither Jimmie Lee Jackson's murderer, nor Reverend Reeb's was ever prosecuted by the federal government.<ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/timhis65.htm#1965m2mlbjwso "1965 β President Johnson: We Shall Overcome"], Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref><ref>[http://thegrio.com/2011/03/11/fbi-investigating-65-killing-of-minister/ "FBI investigating '65 killing of pro-civil rights minister"], ''The Grio''.</ref> [[J. L. Chestnut]], reflecting the view of many Selma activists, feared that the president had "outfoxed" and "co-opted" King and the SCLC. James Forman quipped that by quoting "We Shall Overcome", Johnson had simply "spoiled a good song".<ref>Gary May, ''Bending Toward Justice'', p. 125.</ref> Such grassroots activists were more determined than ever to remain independent in their political organizing. Before the march to Montgomery concluded, SNCC staffers [[Stokely Carmichael]] and [[Cleveland Sellers]] committed themselves to registering voters in [[Lowndes County, Alabama|Lowndes County]] for the next year. Their efforts resulted in the creation of the [[Lowndes County Freedom Organization]], an independent third party.<ref>[http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/about_king/encyclopedia/carmichael_stokely.html "Stokely Carmichael"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223180202/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/about_king/encyclopedia/carmichael_stokely.html |date=December 23, 2014 }}. King Encyclopedia.</ref><ref>[http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eii/eiiweb/sel5427.0215.148clevelandsellers.html "Eyes on the Prize II: Interview with Cleveland Sellers"], Washington University Digital Gateway.</ref> The bill was signed by President Johnson in an August 6 ceremony attended by [[Amelia Boynton Robinson|Amelia Boynton]] and many other civil rights leaders and activists. This act prohibited most of the unfair practices used to prevent blacks from registering to vote, and provided for federal registrars to go to Alabama and other states with a history of voting-related discrimination to ensure that the law was implemented by overseeing registration and elections. In the early years of the Act, overall progress was slow, with local registrars continuing to use their power to deny African Americans voting access. In most Alabama counties, for example, registration continued to be limited to two days per month.<ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/tim65b.htm#65scope_vr "1965 β SCOPE Voter Registration"]. Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline].</ref> The [[United States Civil Rights Commission]] acknowledged that "The Attorney General moved slowly in exercising his authority to designate counties for examiners ... he acted only in counties where he had ample evidence to support the belief that there would be intentional and flagrant violation of the Act."<ref name="law.umaryland.edu">{{Cite web|url=http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr12V942.pdf|title="Voting Rights Act:the first months". United States Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, DC. 1965. CR1.2:V94/2}}</ref> Dr. King demanded that federal registrars be sent to every county covered by the Act, but Attorney General Katzenbach refused.<ref name="auto">[http://crmvet.org/tim/tim65b.htm#65scope_vr "1965-SCOPE Voter Registration"]. Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref> In the summer of 1965, a well-funded SCLC decided to join SNCC and CORE in massive on-the-ground voter registration programs in the South. The Civil Rights Commission described this as a major contribution to expanding black voters in 1965, and the Justice Department acknowledged leaning on the work of "local organizations" in the movement to implement the Act.<ref name="law.umaryland.edu"/> SCLC and SNCC were temporarily able to mend past differences through collaboration in the [[SCOPE Project|Summer Community Organization & Political Education project]]. Ultimately, their coalition foundered on SCLC's commitment to nonviolence and (at the time) the Democratic Party.<ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/tim65b.htm#65scope_sncc "1965-SCLC/SCOPE and SNCC"]. Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref> Many activists worried that President Johnson still sought to appease Southern whites, and some historians{{Who|date=June 2023}} support this view.<ref>[http://crmvet.org/tim/tim65b.htm#65scope_after "1965-SCOPE"]. Civil Rights Movement Archive History and Timeline.</ref><ref>Hanes Walton Jr, Sherman Puckett, and Donald R Deskins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=b8zVVp8qJ5sC&q=dittmer&pg=PA678 ''The African American Electorate: A Statistical History''] (CQ Press, 2012), pp. 624β628.</ref> By March 1966, nearly 11,000 blacks had registered to vote in Selma, where 12,000 whites were registered.<ref name="reed"/> More blacks would register by November, when their goal was to replace County Sheriff [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]]; his opponent was Wilson Baker, for whom they had respect. In addition, five blacks ran for office in Dallas County. Rev. [[P. H. Lewis]], pastor of [[Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)|Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church]], ran for state representative on the Democratic ticket. David Ellwanger, a brother of Rev. [[Joseph Ellwanger]] of Birmingham, who led supporters in Selma in 1965, challenged incumbent state senator [[Walter C. Givhan]] (d. 1976), a fierce segregationist and a power in the state senate.<ref name="reed"/> First elected to the state senate in 1954, Givhan retained his seat for six terms, even after redistricting that preceded the 1966 election.<ref>[http://agriculture.auburn.edu/people/walter-c-givhan/ "Walter C. Givhan"], Auburn University, 2015, accessed March 12, 2015.</ref> In November 1966, Katzenbach told Johnson regarding Alabama, that "I am attempting to do the least I can do safely without upsetting the civil rights groups." Katzenbach did concentrate examiners and observers in Selma for the "high-visibility" election between incumbent County Sheriff Jim Clark and Wilson Baker, who had earned the grudging respect of many local residents and activists.<ref>Taylor Branch, ''At Canaan's Edge'', p. 461.</ref> With 11,000 blacks added to the voting rolls in Selma by March 1966, they voted for Baker in 1966, turning Clark out of office. Clark later was prosecuted and convicted of drug smuggling and served a prison sentence.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rawls |first=Phillip |title=Ala. Ex-Sheriff Dies; Civil Rights Foe |agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 6, 2007 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060601868.html}}</ref> The US Civil Rights Commission said that the murders of activists, such as [[Jonathan Daniels]] in 1965, had been a major impediment to voter registration.<ref name="law.umaryland.edu"/> Overall, the Justice Department assigned registrars to six of Alabama's 24 Black Belt counties during the late 1960s, and to fewer than one-fifth of all the Southern counties covered by the Act.<ref name="auto"/> Expansion of enforcement grew gradually, and the jurisdiction of the Act was expanded through a series of amendments beginning in 1970. An important change was made in 1972, when Congress passed an amendment that discrimination could be determined by "effect" rather than by trying to prove "intent". Thus, if county or local practices resulted in a significant minority population being unable to elect candidates of their choice, the practices were considered to be discriminatory in effect. In 1960, there were a total of 53,336 black voters registered in the state of Alabama; three decades later, there were 537,285,<ref>[http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec59det.html Selma-to-Montgomery 1965 Voting Rights March] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090316162216/http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec59det.html |date=March 16, 2009 }} β Alabama Department of Archives & History.</ref> a tenfold increase. <!--Add officeholders - local and other offices --> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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