Selma to Montgomery marches

=== "Bloody Sunday" events ===
On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma on [[U.S. Highway 80]]. The march was led by [[John Lewis]] of SNCC and the Reverend [[Hosea Williams]] of SCLC, followed by [[Bob Mants]] of SNCC and [[Albert Turner (civil rights activist)|Albert Turner]] of SCLC. The protest went according to plan until the marchers crossed the [[Edmund Pettus Bridge]], where they encountered a wall of [[state trooper]]s and county posse waiting for them on the other side.

County sheriff [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]] had issued an order for all white men in Dallas County over the age of twenty-one to report to the courthouse that morning to be deputized. Commanding officer John Cloud told the demonstrators to disband at once and go home. Rev. Hosea Williams tried to speak to the officer, but Cloud curtly informed him there was nothing to discuss. Seconds later, the troopers began shoving the demonstrators, knocking many to the ground and beating them with [[Baton (law enforcement)|nightstick]]s. Another detachment of troopers fired [[tear gas]], and mounted troopers charged the crowd on horseback.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/cost.htm "The Cost", ''We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement''], National Park Service.</ref><ref>Gary May, ''Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy'' (Basic Books, 2013).</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2015}}

Televised images of the brutal attack presented Americans and international audiences with horrifying images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the Selma Voting Rights Campaign. [[Amelia Boynton Robinson|Amelia Boynton]], who had helped organize the march as well as marching in it, was beaten unconscious. A photograph of her lying on the road of the [[Edmund Pettus Bridge]] appeared on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world.<ref name="HardyHardy2008"/><ref>[http://www.schillerinstitute.org/conf-iclc/2001/Labor_Day/conf_sep_2001_mw_.html "The wire photo of her left for dead on Edmund Pettus Bridge, which went around the world on the news that night, helped spark the outpouring of support for the civil rights movement..."], Schiller Institute. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721065754/http://www.schillerinstitute.org/conf-iclc/2001/Labor_Day/conf_sep_2001_mw_.html |date=July 21, 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2024}}</ref> Another marcher, Lynda Blackmon Lowery, age 14, was brutally beaten by a police officer during the march, and needed seven stitches for a cut above her right eye and 28 stitches on the back of her head.<ref>{{Cite AV media|title=Soundtrack for a Revolution: Freedom Songs from the Civil Rights Era|last=Guttentag|first=Bill|type=Film|publisher=Freedom Songs Production|year=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Blackmon Lowery |first1=Lynda |title=Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement |date= 2015 |publisher=Dial |isbn=978-0-8037-4123-2}}</ref> John Lewis suffered a skull fracture and bore scars on his head from the incident for the rest of his life. In all, 17 marchers were hospitalized and 50 treated for lesser injuries; the day soon became known as "Bloody Sunday" within the black community.<ref name="reed"/>