Collection Online as of May 16, 2022
On Duty in Alabama: Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, march down a street at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama Saturday. They were sent to Alabama for possible use in the Selma-Montgomery march, March 20, 1965
J. Spencer Jones
(American)
Gelatin silver print, wirephoto
Image: 16.6 x 27.8 cm (6 9/16 x 10 15/16 in.); Paper: 16.6 x 27.8 cm (6 9/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.29
Location
not on view
Description
Protests demanding equal voting rights for Blacks were met with resistance, arrests, and sometime, violence. Alabama became the focus of these protests, culminating in the famous 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on March 21-25, 1965. Press coverage, especially photographs, aroused public awareness and helped lead, five months later, to passage of the national Voting Rights Act, which allowed Black voters to challenge restrictions and greatly strengthened their participation in elections.