Black History Month: LBJ, MLK and the March from Selma to Montgomery
On March 21, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began the start of his third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had attempted to organize a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, for March 7, 1965. That attempt was aborted because of mob and police violence against the demonstrators. The day later became known as "Bloody Sunday" and it wold become a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the Civil Rights Movement. King was not present at the event because of church duties. He later wrote, "If I had any idea that the state troopers would use the kind of brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up my church duties altogether to lead the line."
King met with officials in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration on March 5 in order to request an injunction against any prosecution of the demonstrators. Footage of police brutality against the protesters had been broadcast extensively on national television and aroused considerable public outrage.
King next attempted to organize a march for March 9. The SCLC petitioned for an injunction in federal court against the State of Alabama. This was denied and the judge issued an order blocking the march until after a hearing. Nonetheless, King led marchers on March 9 to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, then held a short prayer session before turning the marchers around and asking them to disperse so as not to violate the court order. That evening, three white ministers who had come for the march were attacked by four members of the Ku Klux Klan and beaten with clubs. The worst injured was James Reeb, a white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston. Selma's public hospital refused to treat Rev. Reeb, and he had to be taken to Birmingham's University Hospital, two hours away. Reeb died on Thursday, March 11 at University Hospital with his wife by his side.
On March 17, Judge Frank Johnson ruled in favor of the protestors, saying that their First Amendment right to march in protest could not be abridged by the state of Alabama. He said "The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups . . . . These rights may . . . be exercised by marching, even along public highways."
On March 21, close to 8,000 people assembled at Brown Chapel to commence the trek to Montgomery. Most of the participants were black, but some were white and some were Asian and Latino. Spiritual leaders of multiple races religions and faith marched abreast with Dr. King, including Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Maurice Davis, and at least one nun.
The following excerpt is from Randall B. Woods' 2006 book entitled LBJ: Architect of American Ambition at pages 584-5:
Johnsonian rhetoric notwithstanding, Martin Luther King Jr. intended to keep the pressure on. Alabama was still a long way from Washington, and he sensed no softening in the attitudes of the George Wallaces, Al Lingos and Jim Clarks of the world. On March 17, Federal District Court Judge Frank Johnson, sitting in Montgomery, issued an order sanctioning the SCLC's planned march from Selma to the capital and declaring that participants were entitled to state protection. Wallace was at last trapped. On March 18 he called the president. "These people are pouring in from all over the country," he whined. "Two days ago... James Forman suggested in front of all the nuns and the priests that if anybody went in a cafe and they wouldn't serve 'em, they'd kick the fuckin' legs of the tables off... It inflames people... I don't want anybody to get hurt. But... I don't want to be in the position of intimating that I'm asking for federal troops... A Negro priest yesterday asked all the patrolmen what their wives were doing, whether some of their friends could have dates with their wives. You know, trying to provoke them... These fifty thousand people... They're going to bankrupt the state." LBJ listened patiently, but remained firm. It would be much better, much less divisive if the national guard acted as state rather than federal troops. But Wallace would not give.
That night, Wallace told the Alabama legislature in a televised speech that the state could not afford to activate the guard. He demanded that the president send federal authorities to Alabama. LBJ was furious. "You're dealing with a very treacherous guy," he told Buford Ellington. "He's a no good son of a bitch... Son of a bitch! He's absolutely treacherous." Later, Wallace wired the White House that he did not have the assets available to protect a march from Selma to Montgomery. Absurd, Johnson told reporters. The governor had available to him ten thousand national guardsmen, but if Wallace could not or would not call them up, he would dispatch federal troops to protect King and his fellow demonstrators. The President issued orders federalizing the Alabama National Guard and dispatched a sizable contingent of regular army troops to Maxwell Air Force Base to stand by if needed. "Be sure whatever we do is measured, fitting and adequate - like Viet Nam," he told Katzenbach, Ellington and the Justice Department official Burke Marshall.
On March 21, 392 marchers with King at their head set out on foot from Selma to Montgomery. Federalized guardsmen lined the route, and there were only minor incidents along the way. The entire march was covered by television cameras and print journalists. The trek, some fifty-four miles, took several days. It was bitterly cold at night, and King slept in a trailer that accompanied the marchers. By the time the demonstrators reached the outskirts of Montgomery, their numbers had swelled to twelve hundred, including show business celebrities Peter Paul and Mary; Joan Baez; Dick Gregory; Frank Sinatra; and Marlon Brando. The morning after the marchers arrived, King addressed a throng of some twenty-five thousand that had gathered on the plaza in front of the state capitol. The redoubtable Wallace peeked at the proceedings from behind Venetian blinds in his office.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had attempted to organize a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery, for March 7, 1965. That attempt was aborted because of mob and police violence against the demonstrators. The day later became known as "Bloody Sunday" and it wold become a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the Civil Rights Movement. King was not present at the event because of church duties. He later wrote, "If I had any idea that the state troopers would use the kind of brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up my church duties altogether to lead the line."
King met with officials in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration on March 5 in order to request an injunction against any prosecution of the demonstrators. Footage of police brutality against the protesters had been broadcast extensively on national television and aroused considerable public outrage.
King next attempted to organize a march for March 9. The SCLC petitioned for an injunction in federal court against the State of Alabama. This was denied and the judge issued an order blocking the march until after a hearing. Nonetheless, King led marchers on March 9 to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, then held a short prayer session before turning the marchers around and asking them to disperse so as not to violate the court order. That evening, three white ministers who had come for the march were attacked by four members of the Ku Klux Klan and beaten with clubs. The worst injured was James Reeb, a white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston. Selma's public hospital refused to treat Rev. Reeb, and he had to be taken to Birmingham's University Hospital, two hours away. Reeb died on Thursday, March 11 at University Hospital with his wife by his side.
On March 17, Judge Frank Johnson ruled in favor of the protestors, saying that their First Amendment right to march in protest could not be abridged by the state of Alabama. He said "The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups . . . . These rights may . . . be exercised by marching, even along public highways."
On March 21, close to 8,000 people assembled at Brown Chapel to commence the trek to Montgomery. Most of the participants were black, but some were white and some were Asian and Latino. Spiritual leaders of multiple races religions and faith marched abreast with Dr. King, including Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel and Maurice Davis, and at least one nun.
The following excerpt is from Randall B. Woods' 2006 book entitled LBJ: Architect of American Ambition at pages 584-5:
Johnsonian rhetoric notwithstanding, Martin Luther King Jr. intended to keep the pressure on. Alabama was still a long way from Washington, and he sensed no softening in the attitudes of the George Wallaces, Al Lingos and Jim Clarks of the world. On March 17, Federal District Court Judge Frank Johnson, sitting in Montgomery, issued an order sanctioning the SCLC's planned march from Selma to the capital and declaring that participants were entitled to state protection. Wallace was at last trapped. On March 18 he called the president. "These people are pouring in from all over the country," he whined. "Two days ago... James Forman suggested in front of all the nuns and the priests that if anybody went in a cafe and they wouldn't serve 'em, they'd kick the fuckin' legs of the tables off... It inflames people... I don't want anybody to get hurt. But... I don't want to be in the position of intimating that I'm asking for federal troops... A Negro priest yesterday asked all the patrolmen what their wives were doing, whether some of their friends could have dates with their wives. You know, trying to provoke them... These fifty thousand people... They're going to bankrupt the state." LBJ listened patiently, but remained firm. It would be much better, much less divisive if the national guard acted as state rather than federal troops. But Wallace would not give.
That night, Wallace told the Alabama legislature in a televised speech that the state could not afford to activate the guard. He demanded that the president send federal authorities to Alabama. LBJ was furious. "You're dealing with a very treacherous guy," he told Buford Ellington. "He's a no good son of a bitch... Son of a bitch! He's absolutely treacherous." Later, Wallace wired the White House that he did not have the assets available to protect a march from Selma to Montgomery. Absurd, Johnson told reporters. The governor had available to him ten thousand national guardsmen, but if Wallace could not or would not call them up, he would dispatch federal troops to protect King and his fellow demonstrators. The President issued orders federalizing the Alabama National Guard and dispatched a sizable contingent of regular army troops to Maxwell Air Force Base to stand by if needed. "Be sure whatever we do is measured, fitting and adequate - like Viet Nam," he told Katzenbach, Ellington and the Justice Department official Burke Marshall.
On March 21, 392 marchers with King at their head set out on foot from Selma to Montgomery. Federalized guardsmen lined the route, and there were only minor incidents along the way. The entire march was covered by television cameras and print journalists. The trek, some fifty-four miles, took several days. It was bitterly cold at night, and King slept in a trailer that accompanied the marchers. By the time the demonstrators reached the outskirts of Montgomery, their numbers had swelled to twelve hundred, including show business celebrities Peter Paul and Mary; Joan Baez; Dick Gregory; Frank Sinatra; and Marlon Brando. The morning after the marchers arrived, King addressed a throng of some twenty-five thousand that had gathered on the plaza in front of the state capitol. The redoubtable Wallace peeked at the proceedings from behind Venetian blinds in his office.