Sheriff Clark at the Scene: Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark, left, stands with his chief deputy, L. C. Crocker as Negroes turn out in large numbers to register at the courthouse in Selma, Alabama today. The line of applicants in background stretched several blocks. Clark got up from a hospital bed today but appeared to be acting more as an observer, February 15, 1965

1965

America

Medium

gelatin silver print, wirephoto

Measurements

Image: 16.5 x 21.7 cm (6 1/2 x 8 9/16 in.); Paper: 17 x 21.7 cm (6 11/16 x 8 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.32

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

In January 1965, Selma, Alabama, became the focus of efforts to register Black voters.

Description

Despite the fact that protests seeking equal voting rights for Blacks were peaceful, by the end of February, 3,000 protestors had been arrested. In March, Sheriff Jim Clark ordered his men to attack marchers with whips, nightsticks, and tear gas. Clark’s obituary in the New York Times remarks that his “violent, highly public attempts to maintain the status quo there in the Jim Crow era are widely believed to have contributed, however inadvertently, to the success of the voting rights movement.”