Selma to Montgomery marches

===Jimmie Lee Jackson's murder===
{{main|Jimmie Lee Jackson}}

On February 18, 1965, C. T. Vivian led a march to the courthouse in [[Marion, Alabama|Marion]], the county seat of neighboring [[Perry County, Alabama|Perry County]], to protest the arrest of James Orange. State officials had received orders to target Vivian, and a line of [[Alabama Highway Patrol|Alabama state troopers]] waited for the marchers at the Perry County courthouse.<ref>Halberstam, David. ''The Children'', Random House, 1998, p. 502.</ref> Officials had turned off all of the nearby street lights, and state troopers rushed at the protesters, attacking them. Protesters [[Jimmie Lee Jackson]], his grandfather and his mother fled the scene to hide in a nearby café. Alabama State Trooper corporal [[James Bonard Fowler]] followed Jackson into the café and shot him, saying he thought the protester was trying to get his gun as they grappled. Jackson died eight days later at Selma's Good Samaritan Hospital, of an [[infection]] resulting from the gunshot wound.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fleming |first=John |title=The Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson |newspaper=[[The Anniston Star]] |date=March 6, 2005 |url=http://www.annistonstar.com/view/full_story/2746471/article-The-Death-of-Jimmie-Lee-Jackson?instance=special |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124111458/http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/2746471/article-The-Death-of-Jimmie-Lee-Jackson?instance=special |archive-date=November 24, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson prompted civil rights leaders to bring their cause directly to Alabama Governor George Wallace by performing a {{Cvt|54|mi|km}} march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Klein |first1=Christopher |title=How Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' Became a Turning Point in the Civil Rights Movement |url=https://www.history.com/news/selma-bloody-sunday-attack-civil-rights-movement |publisher=[[History (American TV network)|History.com]] |access-date=January 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114211644/https://www.history.com/news/selma-bloody-sunday-attack-civil-rights-movement |archive-date=January 14, 2021|date=March 6, 2015}}</ref> Jackson was the only male wage-earner of his household, which lived in [[extreme poverty]]. Jackson's grandfather, mother, wife, and children were left with no source of income.