A year after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Council decided to focus their attention on Selma, Alabama. Of the 15,000 black residents of Selma only 300 were registered to vote. A protest march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, was planned. However it ended in bloody violence, when state troopers used whips, nightsticks, and tear gas to disperse the crowd at the Edmund Pettis Bridge.

Two days later King attempted another march but was blocked on highway 80 and decided to turn the marchers around. Six days later President Johnson stepped in, and on national television pledged his support to the protestors and called for the passage of a new voting rights bill that he would introduce to Congress.
​
On March 21, 1965, King led the march from Selma to Montgomery under the protection of U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard. They walked continuously for 5 days and covered 54 miles. 50,000 supporters met them when they reached Montgomery. In front of the state capital King spoke to the crowd, “no tide of racism can stop us”.