One of the most famous campaigns of the civil rights movement was the Selma Voting Rights Campaign. In early 1965, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that he led were invited to come to Selma, Alabama, and participate in a major voting rights campaign there, as Alabama had been particularly effective in suppressing the Black vote. Dr. King and SCLC worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in a multifaceted campaign that included groundwork such as voter education, largely conducted by SNCC and public demonstrations spearheaded by SCLC. For example, Dr. King and more than 200 activists were arrested at the Dallas County Courthouse on Feb. 1, 1965, when they attempted to register to vote.

Most famously, the campaign included a march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery. On March 7, 1965, the first attempt at this march, led by SCLC’s Hosea Williams and SNCC chairperson John Lewis, was violently suppressed in an event that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Video footage of peaceful protesters being savagely attacked and beaten dominated national news, creating outrage across the country. Meanwhile, Dr. King led a second attempt at the march on March 9, but turned the crowd back after being confronted by troopers.

The campaign became one of the signature achievements of the civil rights movement and perhaps one of its most impactful moments. President Lyndon B. Johnson made a nationally televised address on March 15 supporting the protests and urging Congress to pass a new voting rights bill that he proposed. Johnson also ordered federal troops to protect the marchers, who finally conducted their journey from Selma to Montgomery later that month.

In his speech in Montgomery, known as “How Long, Not Long" or “Our God Is Marching On,” Dr. King laid out the importance of fighting for the right to vote. “Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote,” he said to the gathered audience. “In focusing the attention of the nation and the world today on the flagrant denial of the right to vote, we are exposing the very origin, the root cause, of racial segregation in the Southland.” The full text of his speech can be read here.

John Lewis went on to become a long-serving U.S. representative for the state of Georgia and a civil rights icon, with one of the current voting rights protection bills named in his honor. The Selma campaign was portrayed by director Ava DuVernay in the 2014 Oscar-winning film Selma.

March on Selma

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