7002 US Highway 80
Hayneville, Alabama
June 18, 2009
We drove from Montgomery to Selma and stopped at the The Interpretive Center about midway between the two cities. The photographs and displays of the historic 54-miles walk in March, 1965, convey the events that changed the United States.
The march of 300 people started in Selma on March 7, 1965, and was blocked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. People were beaten and tear gassed and some were killed. Another march started on March 21 with around 3200 people and, 4 days later, 25,000 reach the State Capitol at Montgomery.
As a result of the excessive police brutality, the nation reacted to the images on television and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Learn more at:
http://www.nps.gov/semo/
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm
http://home.nps.gov/applications/release/Detail.cfm?ID=19
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