Selma to Montgomery: Pivotal in Civil Rights

Bloody Sunday
In order to draw attention to their treatment by the police, local black leaders, in concert with the SNCC and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called for a march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital, where they would deliver a petition protesting police brutality to the governor. Around 500 marchers set out on March 7, and they peacefully passed over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but were met by state troopers on the other side. Told to disband, the marchers tried to initiate a conversation, but were met with nightsticks and tear gas instead.

• The Greensboro Sit-In