Existing comment:
Bloody Sunday, Selma, Ala. / March 7, 1965:
By the end of Freedom Summer, national attention was focused on the repression of black voters in the South, but there was still resistance to change. A dramatic turning point occurred the following year. On March 7, 1965 -- which became known as "Bloody Sunday" -- SNCC leader John Lewis led a voting rights march in Selma, Ala., that drew a fury of violence. State troopers attacked the marchers, including Lewis, whose skull was fractured. Eight days later, an outraged President Lyndon B. Johnson demanded in a nationally televised speech that Congress pass legislation guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. Johnson called on Americans to "overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice." Echoing the anthem of the civil rights movement, he vowed, "And we shall overcome." The president signed the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965. |