Editing Selma, Alabama (section)

===Twentieth century===
In 1901, the state legislature passed a new constitution with electoral provisions, such as [[poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]] and [[literacy tests]], that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites, leaving them without representation in government, and deprived them of participation in juries and other forms of citizenship. Selma, Dallas County and other jurisdictions carried out the segregation laws passed by the state.

Especially in the post-World War II period, legal challenges by the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] against Southern discriminatory laws enabled blacks to more freely exercise their constitutional rights as citizens.

====Selma Voting Rights Movement====
{{see also|Selma to Montgomery marches}}
Selma maintained segregated schools and other facilities, enforcing the state law in new enterprises such as movie theaters. The Jim Crow laws and customs were enforced with violence.
[[File:Segregation 1938b.jpg|thumb|left|Segregated drinking fountain, 1938]]

In the 1960s, black people who pushed the boundaries, attempting to eat at "white-only" lunch counters or sit in the downstairs "white" section of movie theaters, were still beaten and arrested. Nearly half of Selma's residents were black, but because of the restrictive electoral laws and practices in place since the turn of the century, only one percent were registered to vote, preventing them from serving on juries or serving in local office.<ref>''U.S. Civil Rights Commission report'', 1961</ref> All the members of the city council were elected by [[at-large]] voting. Black people were prevented from registering to vote by means of a [[literacy test]], administered in a subjective way, as well as through economic retaliation organized by the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]] in response to civil rights activism, [[Ku Klux Klan]] violence and police repression. After the Supreme Court case ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'' (1944) ended the use of [[white primaries]] by the Democratic Party, the Alabama state legislature passed a law giving voting registrars more authority to challenge prospective voters under the literacy test. In Selma, the county registration board opened doors for registration only two days a month, arrived late and took long lunches.<ref>''Eyes on the Prize'' documentary film ~ Blackside</ref>

In early 1963, [[Bernard Lafayette]] and Colia Lafayette of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) began organizing in Selma alongside local civil rights leaders Sam, [[Amelia Boynton|Amelia]] and Bruce Boynton, Rev. L.L. Anderson of Tabernacle Baptist Church, [[J.L. Chestnut]] (Selma's first black attorney), [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]] Citizenship School teacher [[Marie Foster]], public school teacher Marie Moore, [[Frederick D. Reese]] and others active with the [[Dallas County Voters League]] (DCVL).<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis63.htm#1963selma1 Selma — Cracking the Wall of Fear] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615060449/http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis63.htm#1963selma1 |date=June 15, 2009 }} ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

In 1963, under the leadership of [[Patricia Swift Blalock]], the public library of Selma-Dallas County was integrated.<ref>Graham, P.T., (2002) ''A Right to Read: Segregation and Civil Rights in Alabama's Public Libraries, 1900–1965.'' Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.</ref>
[[File:Brown Chapel AME.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)|Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church]] in Selma. A gathering place for meetings and a starting point for the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches of 1965, it has been designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]].]]

Against fierce opposition from Dallas County Sheriff [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]] and his volunteer posse, black people continued their voter registration and desegregation efforts, which expanded during 1963 and the first part of 1964. Defying intimidation, economic retaliation, arrests, firings and beatings, an ever-increasing number of Dallas County blacks tried to register to vote, but few were able to do so under the subjective system administered by whites.<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim63b.htm#1963fdselma Freedom Day in Selma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816034441/http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim63b.htm#1963fdselma |date=August 16, 2016 }} ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>

In the summer of 1964, a sweeping injunction issued by local judge James Hare barred any gathering of three or more people under sponsorship of SNCC, SCLC or DCVL, or with the involvement of 41 named civil rights leaders. This injunction temporarily halted civil-rights activity until Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] defied it by speaking to a crowd about the struggle at [[Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)|Brown Chapel AME Church]] on January 2, 1965. He had been invited by local leaders to help their movement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/tim64c.htm |title=The Selma Injunction |work=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement |access-date=July 5, 2010 }}</ref>

Beginning in January 1965, SCLC and SNCC initiated a revived voting-rights campaign designed to focus national attention on the systematic denial of black voting rights in Alabama, and particularly in Selma. Over the next weeks, more than 3,000 African-Americans were arrested, and they suffered police violence and economic retaliation. [[Jimmie Lee Jackson]], who was unarmed, was killed in a café in nearby Marion after state police broke up a peaceful protest in the town.
[[File:Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama (27609419870).jpg|thumb|left|[[Edmund Pettus Bridge]], heading out of downtown Selma, across the Alabama River, towards Montgomery. Pettus was a Confederate [[brigadier general]], and later [[Grand Dragon]] of the Alabama [[Ku Klux Klan]].]]
[[File:Bloody Sunday-officers await demonstrators.jpeg|thumb|left|The Edmund Pettus Bridge, looking back towards Selma. Sheriff's deputies await the marchers on "Bloody Sunday".]]
[[File:Bloody Sunday-Alabama police attack.jpeg|thumb|300px|"Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965. State troopers<ref>Personal knowledge</ref> attack marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.]]

Activists planned a larger, more public march from [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to the state capital of Montgomery]] to publicize their cause. It was initiated and organized by [[James Bevel]], SCLC's Director of Direct Action, who was directing SCLC's Selma Movement. This march represented one of the political and emotional peaks of the modern civil-rights movement. On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 civil rights marchers departed Selma on [[U.S. Highway 80]], heading east to the capital. After they passed over the crest of the [[Edmund Pettus Bridge]] and left the boundaries of the city, they were confronted by county sheriff's deputies and state troopers, who attacked them using [[tear gas]], horses and [[billy club]]s, and drove them back across the bridge. Governor [[George Wallace]] had vowed that the march would not be permitted. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized and 50 more were treated for lesser injuries. Because of the brutal attacks, this became known as [[Bloody Sunday (1965)|"Bloody Sunday".]] It was covered by national press and television news, reaching many American and international homes.<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>

Two days after the first march, on March 9, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a symbolic march over the bridge. By then local activists and residents had been joined by hundreds of protesters from across the country, including numerous clergy and nuns. White people made up one-third of the marchers. King pulled the marchers back from entering the county and having another confrontation with county and state forces. But that night, white minister [[James Reeb]], who had traveled to the city from Boston, was attacked and killed in Selma by members of the KKK.

King and other civil-rights leaders filed for court protection for a third, larger-scale march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. King was also in touch with the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who arranged for protection for another march. [[Frank Minis Johnson|Frank Minis Johnson, Jr.]], the federal district court judge for the area who reviewed the injunction, decided in favor of the demonstrators, saying: 
{{blockquote|The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups ... and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.|Frank Johnson}}

[[File:Selma to Montgomery Marches.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Selma to Montgomery marches]], March 1965.]]
On Sunday, March 21, 1965, approximately 3,200 marchers departed for Montgomery. Marching in the front row with King were Rev. [[Ralph Abernathy]], Rabbi [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]], Greek Orthodox Father Iakovos (later [[Archbishop Iakovos of America]]) and Roman Catholic nuns. They walked approximately 12 miles a day and slept in nearby fields. The federal government provided protection in the form of [[United States National Guard|National Guard]] and military troops. Thousands joined the march along the way. By the time the marchers reached the capital four days later, on March 25, their strength had swelled to around 25,000 people. Their moral campaign had attracted thousands from across the country.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.crmvet.org/disc/selma.htm |title=Selma & the March to Montgomery-A Discussion November–June, 2004–2005 |work=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement |access-date=July 5, 2010 }}</ref>

The events at Selma helped increase public support for the cause; later that year the U.S. Congress passed the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], a bill introduced, supported and signed by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. It provided for federal oversight and enforcement of voting rights for all citizens in state or jurisdictions where patterns of underrepresentation showed discrimination against certain populations such as ethnic minorities.

By March 1966, a year after the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, nearly 11,000 black people had registered to vote in Selma, where 12,000 white people were registered. Registration increased by November, when Wilson Baker was elected as Dallas County Sheriff to replace the notorious [[Jim Clark (sheriff)|Jim Clark]].

However, seven years later, black people had not been able to elect a candidate of their choice to the city council. The council's members were elected at-large by the entire city, and the white majority had managed to control the elections. Threatened with a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, the council voted to adopt a system of electing its ten members from single-member districts. After the change, five African-American Democrats were elected to the city council, including activist [[Frederick Douglas Reese]], who became a major power in the city; five white people were also elected to the council.<ref name="ari">[http://www.thenation.com/article/199217/fifty-years-after-march-selma-everything-and-nothing-has-changed Ari Berman, "Fifty Years After Bloody Sunday in Selma, Everything and Nothing Has Changed"], ''The Nation'', February 25, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015</ref>