1965day.year
Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.
Civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, were brutally attacked by police in the event known as Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965.
On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 civil rights marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, were met with violent force by state troopers in an event known as Bloody Sunday. The peaceful protesters had set out to demand voting rights for African Americans after previous petitions had been ignored. Police used tear gas, billy clubs, and mounted charges to disperse the crowd, leaving dozens injured. Graphic news footage of the assault shocked national and international audiences. Bloody Sunday galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act, which was passed by Congress later that year.
1965
Bloody Sunday
civil rights
Selma, Alabama