Dr. Martin Luther King's March From Selma To Montgomery March

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the March from Selma to Montgomery. The purpose of the march was for equal voting rights for blacks. The march was in Alabama and started from March 7th to March 25th in 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders led the marchers to March from Selma to Montgomery to protest non-violently for equal voting rights, which led to the voting rights act of 1965.

The ultimate goal was to be able to vote fairly and be protected of their right to vote. This was very important, because of years of discrimination and violence towards blacks. Jim crow laws played a big role of discrimination, which lead up to segregation being legalized. “Jim crow laws, in U.S. history, states enacted by southern states and municipalities, …show more content…
They used non-violence and marched in a certain way. “...Dr. King and his counterparts could not simply just march in any manner they wanted to, they were already under heavy danger and criticism for even considering doing this and so they planned the march with an awareness of traffic violations in the state of Alabama in an attempt to not break the law.” “...Dr. King and the other organizations as well before they met, the continuation of the non-violence practice was something that was discussed and heavily endorsed in the meetings days before the march. “By being non-violent it allowed the adversary (white law enforcement) to be looked at as cruel and unethical when seen that black people were not retaliating in the same manner.” This explains the precautions they took before the march so they can get more support and protection to continue the march, which was successful in getting more people to come and have the government …show more content…
Luther King Jr. successfully led and completed the march with everyone officially on March 25th, 1965, it achieved getting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in August. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave all African Americans the right to vote and banned literacy tests and poll taxes. “President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, calling for federal voting rights legislation to protect African Americans from barriers that prevented them from voting. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote (first awarded by the 15th Amendment) to all African Americans. Specifically, the act banned literacy tests as a requirement for voting, mandated federal oversight of voter registration in areas where tests had previously been used, and gave the U.S. attorney general the duty of challenging the use of poll taxes for state and local elections.” This shows how President Johnson acted as a result of the March from Selma to Montgomery to provide equal voting rights for all. The march also influenced the LCFO (Lowndes County Freedom Organization) to help black voters to not be afraid of voting. “The march in Selma also inspired other grassroot movements. ...Activists in rural Lowndes County formed an all-black political party called the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) one year after the march.” “Hasan Kwane Jeffries, a professor at Ohio State University… He writes that in 1966, most African Americans in Lowndes County
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