The month of February is about the remembrance and honor of the fight African Americans endured
during their fight for equal rights. One day, especially memorable to this tribute, would be Selma’s voting rights
march. On February 1, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and 200+ African Americans were arrested and jailed for their
peaceful march. The African American Community of Selma made up more than 50% of the population yet could
not vote. Selma had the lowest voter registration record due to authorities’ intimidation and discrimination to stop
African Americans from voting.
Due to this prejudice, Dr. King led a peaceful march that had a devastating outcome
because of law enforcement’s racist and unjustifiable efforts. Although death, beatings, and unreasonable arrest
were made, Dr. King continued the March north after his release along with the 200+ African Americans who were
also jailed. All this came to a boiling point in mid-February with the death of 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson on
February 26.
He was shot in the stomach on February 18, 1965, by Alabama State Trooper James Fowler while the
troopers were breaking up a peaceful protest in Marion, Perry County. On March 7, 1965 (Bloody Sunday), a civil
rights march was supposed to go from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery to protest the shooting death of activist
Jimmie Lee Jackson. The roughly 600 marchers were violently driven back by Alabama State Troopers, Dallas
County Sheriff’s deputies, and a horse-mounted posse after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It is important to
remember this time and honor MLK and those who marched for their right to vote.
