Transcript Slide 1

Voter Registration (Selma 1965)
The Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC,
pronounced “snick”), one of the
principal organisations of the
American Civil Rights movement,
had undertaken an ambitious voter
registration program in Selma,
Alabama, in 1963; organising
African-American citizens to register
to vote. However, by 1965 they had
made little headway in the face of
opposition from Selma's sheriff, Jim
Clark. After local residents asked
the SCLC (the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, lead by
Martin Luther King, Jr.) for
assistance, King came to Selma to
lead several marches, at which he
was arrested along with 250 other
demonstrators. The marchers
continued to meet violent resistance
from police.
When did it happen?
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Between 1963 and 1965. The most pivotal
day was March 7th, 1965, when Hosea
Williams of the SCLC and John Lewis of
SNCC led a march of 600 people to walk the
87 km from Selma to the Alabama state
capital in Montgomery. Only six blocks into
the march, however, at the Edmund Pettus
Bridge, state troopers and local law
enforcement, some mounted on horseback,
attacked the peaceful demonstrators with
clubs, tear gas, rubber tubes wrapped in
barbed wire and bull whips and drove the
marchers back into Selma. At least 16
people were hospitalised and many more
were injured.
The national broadcast of the footage of
lawmen attacking unresisting marchers
seeking the right to vote provoked a national
response, inspiring protests in Detroit,
Chicago, Toronto, New Jersey, and other
cities, and caught the attention of the White
House. The marchers were able to obtain a
court order permitting them to make the
march without incident two weeks later.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting
Rights Act of 1965 on August 6.
Where did happen?
Selma, Alabama, USA.
Why did it occur?
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This occurred because African-Americans were being denied of their right to vote. They were
being forced to take voter tests and pay taxes which were all but completely impossible to pass
in order to register to vote.
Who did it involve?
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It involved many civilians as well as a lot of
prominent people involved in the American
Civil Rights movement such as Martin
Luther King, Jr., Amelia Boynton Robinson,
Hosea Williams of the SCLC and John
Lewis of SNCC who lead the march on
March 7th.
Why was it an important event in
the history of Black Civil Rights?
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The 1965 act suspended poll taxes, literacy tests and other
voter tests that prevented African-Americans from voting. It
authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in
states and individual voting districts where such tests were
being used. African-Americans who had been barred from
registering to vote finally had an alternative to local or state
courts. If voting discrimination occurred, the 1965 act
authorized the Attorney General of the United States to
send federal examiners to replace local registrars.
The act had an immediate and positive impact for AfricanAmericans. Within months of the act being passed,
250,000 new black voters had been registered. Within four
years, voter registration in the South had more than
doubled. In 1965, Mississippi had the highest black voter
turnout – 74% – and led the nation in the number of
African-American public officials elected. In 1969,
Tennessee had a 92.1% turnout; Arkansas, 77.9%; and
Texas, 73.1%.
Blacks' regaining the power to vote changed the political
landscape of the South. When Congress passed the Voting
Rights Act, about 100 African Americans held elective office
in the U.S. By 1989, there were more than 7,200 African
Americans in office, including more than 4,800 in the
South. Nearly every Black Belt county in Alabama had a
black sheriff. Southern blacks held top positions within city,
county, and state governments.
How does it relate to Maya
Angelou’s poetry?
Dr King led the march from Selma to Montgomery
and the many marches to the county courthouse to
vote. Dr King and the people of Selma faced police
forces and arrest, but still, they rose. The idea of
keeping on going and rising, to fight for what you
believe in can be linked to Angelou’s poem “Still I
Rise’ (“out of the huts of history’s shame, I
rise….Leaving behind the nights of terror and fear, I
rise,”)
Angelou’s poem “Equality” also has direct links to
protests and Marches, much similar to those during
Selma 1965. “you declare you see me dimly, through
a glass that will not shine, though I stand before you
boldly, trim rank and marking time.”- Military
allusions relate to the protestors marching together,
united, ready to fight for the same cause. During the
Selma incident alone, there were over 7 marches,
with protesters beating out the same message
“While my drums beat out the message and the
rhythms never change.”
Angelou’s poems often talk about strength through
unity and using your voice as protest (I know why
the caged bird sings)” The caged bird sings with a
fearful trill of the things unknown, but longed for still”.
I rise and Equality, talk about the trials and triumphs
of African Americans during this time. The ideas of
prejudice and discrimination found in her poems, can
represent Selma 1965