With the lethal memory of “bloody Sunday” fresh in their minds, 3,600 people set out from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery on March 21, 1965. That march changed everything.
Walter Dobyne intends to make it all the way from Selma to Montgomery this time. The 18-year-old student who was arrested with other voting rights activists in Marion, Alabama, in February and tear-gassed two weeks ago on Bloody Sunday now stands with some 3,600 other would-be marchers outside Selma’s Brown Chapel. This time, they will not be defying a court order when they embark upon the five-day 54-mile journey; Judge Frank M.
Despite the presence of the soldiers, a safe march is not assured. The majority of white Alabamans remain sympathetic to Governor Wallace and Sheriff Clark and hostile to the movement and Dr. King. Just hours before the march is to leave Selma, five time-bombs are discovered in Birmingham. Two are found at black churches, one at a high school, one at the home of a civil rights lawyer, and one at the former home of Dr. King’s brother.
Judge Johnson would not permit the march to proceed until he received a detailed plan from SCLC. The court-approved itinerary allows all participants to walk the seven-mile leg to the first campsite this Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, however, only 300 will be allowed to march through Lowndes County because the highway narrows to two lanes and a larger crowd could disrupt traffic. On Wednesday, when the highway widens to four lanes, people may again join the procession to Montgomery.
Several local clerical leaders remain at home, opposed to the march. Catholic Archbishop Thomas Toolen of Mobile says he respects Dr. King but claims “he is trying to divide our people.” The demonstrations, he adds, “are not helping anything at all.” King and the priests and nuns and other “crusaders” from out of state should go home and let Alabamans solve their own problems.
The protection is necessary. The white people along the highway spew profanities. Cars with “I Hate N-----s” written on their sides follow the marchers. King receives death threats. In the end, about 280 Black marchers are joined by 20 whites. This mix does not satisfy everyone. When the march reaches the point when only 300 may continue as dictated by the injunction, one African American asks, “Why can’t all the white people go back?”
When the 300 marchers enter Lowndes County, King leads them in singing “We Shall Overcome.” A small plane buzzes ominously overhead. Soon it drops leaflets created by White Citizens’ Action, Inc. of Tuscaloosa. The material calls on whites to engage in “selective hiring, firing, buying, [and] selling,” enforcing economic repercussions upon Blacks for their participation in the movement.
Such interest does not escape SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael, who opposes the march, but is trying “to make a positive out of a negative.” He ventures off the road to collect names and addresses of Blacks who have turned out to see the marchers pass by. “Listen, we're going to stay in Lowndes County, we're not going to pass through,” he tells them.
On Tuesday, March 23, the third day of the march, John Lewis, local leader Albert Turner, and others head the procession. The rain continues. Wet clothes and shoes cannot be escaped, nor can chafed skin and blisters. Some shoes fall apart and are repaired with cellophane. The evening’s campsite is all mud.Led by Andrew Young, the marchers leave early Wednesday morning on a 16-mile leg that will bring them to the outskirts of Montgomery. They exit Lowndes County a few hours later.
Baker makes no reference to Dr. King, who is cheered when he takes the stage and says, “This is the greatest march on any capitol that there has ever been in the South. This will go down in history as one of the greatest developments in the civil rights movement.” Four miles away, the State of Alabama is ready. Governor Wallace is in his office, which looks out over the site of the rally that will soon take place. He has no plans to interact with the marchers. Because female state employees have been given the day off to protect them from potential harm, legislative business is at a standstill.“The old capital of the Confederacy looked like an occupied military zone.
A flatbed truck serves as the stage for speakers and performers. Odetta, Oscar Brand, Joan Baez, Len Chandler, and Leon Bibb all sing before the speeches begin. The rally is broadcast live to the nation until Mary Travers of the folk trio Peter, Paul, & Mary kisses Harry Belafonte on the cheek. White viewers angered by the interracial kiss telephone the networks, and CBS temporarily switches back to its regular afternoon programming.
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