A. Philip Randolph
Randolph finally realized his vision for a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, which attracted between 200,000–300,000 to the nation's capital. The rally is often remembered as the high-point of the Civil Rights Movement, and it did help keep the issue in the public consciousness. However, when President Kennedy was assassinated three months later, Civil Rights legislation was stalled in the Senate. It was not until the following year, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, that the Civil Rights Act was finally passed. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. Although King and Bevel rightly deserve great credit for these legislative victories, the importance of Randolph's contributions to the Civil Rights Movement is large.
U.S. Route 80 in Alabama
The Alabama section of US 80 played an integral role in the events of the American Civil Rights Movement. Selma, like many cities and towns in the American southeast, was subject to Jim Crow laws, which enforced acts of racial segregation among the populous. Dating back to 1877, the Jim Crow laws were meant to separate the American black and white populations, while ensuring both had institutions and accommodations of equal quality. A notion commonly referred to as "separate but equal". In reality, the acts did little more than legally force the southeast's black population to reside in poor living conditions and also denied black citizens entry into most white establishments such as businesses and public institutions. Following the events surrounding the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court case of "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954, desegregating American schools and the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and 1956 leading to a similar ruling regarding public bus segregation by the Supreme Court, marked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, meant to abolish American segregation. The movement lead to protests across the United States, including the March on Washington in 1963, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Though the civil rights protests were often met with violent retaliation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured much of the goals the protesters and activists had pushed for became legal reality. However, remaining Jim Crow laws still prevented most black Americans in the southeast from voting. Initial efforts to surpass this problem during the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi was met with the murder of three activists involved in the project. Further retaliation by pro-segregationists, ranging from bombings to police brutality lead to an increase in protests against such violence as well as voting restrictions in the year 1965. In Dallas County, there were over 15,000 black citizens eligible for voter registration, but only 300 of those people were actually registered.
Following earlier failed demonstrations in Selma and the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Martin Luther King Jr. began working with other activists to create a march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. The march was to follow the route of US 80 between the two cities. Despite King being unable to attend due to illness and preferring to postpone the event, the first attempt at the march started without him on March 7, 1965 with 525 individuals in attendance. The march continued east on US 80 until reaching the south side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River. The Alabama National Guard, under orders of Governor George Wallace, awaited the protesters wearing gas masks and brandishing weapons. Joining the Guard were local policemen and "possemen", civilians authorized to combat the protesters by local law enforcement. The resistance proceeded to violently beat the protesters with batons and tear gas, while others trampled protesters with horses while also spitting and cracking bullwhips on the demonstrators. Over 50 participants had to be taken to the hospital. News agencies such as the American Broadcasting Company however, had recorded the event on television cameras, then proceeded to interrupt regular programing to display the footage nationwide. The event would come to be known as "Bloody Sunday". News of the attacks lead to public outrage across the United States. King organized a second protest on March 9, with the support of nearly 400 new demonstrators from across the nation, despite a court issued restraining order. This time, the resistance on the other end of the bridge cleared an open pathway on US 80 for the protesters to proceed rather than continue to block the highway. King, fearing the move was a trap, cancelled the march.
Growing pressure and outrage towards caused President Lyndon Johnson to give a public address to Congress in support to the marchers. As well as the address, Johnson pressured Congress to pass legislation which would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This landmark legislation abolished practices such as literacy tests, which had prevented the majority of black citizens in the southeast from voting. Though the legislation would not be passed until August 6. Judge Frank Minis Johnson overturned the earlier restraining order, ruling the protesters had every right to march along US 80 or any public under rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. A third attempt at the march lead by King began on March 21, 1965 with almost 3,200 people attending. Along the march, demonstrators were met by widespread taunting including signs and posters directing verbal attacks towards the march as well as a radio store in Selma playing "Bye Bye Blackbird" towards the group. In Lowndes County, US 80 reduced from four lanes to two. Due to restrictions, the number of protesters through the county was greatly reduced to 300 persons. Despite the reduction, the march continued to push forward over the next 4 days. On March 25, the march reached the city limits of Montgomery. Upon entering the city, the number of demonstrators rose to 30,000 individuals. The marchers left US 80 and arrived at the state capitol on Dexter Street, where King gave his "How Long, Not Long" speech to a giant crowd on top of a flatbed trailer. President Johnson had arranged for the Alabama National Guard, United States Army, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service to protect the demonstrators from harm during the march along US 80.
In 1989, Representative John Lewis of Georgia, one of the marchers from the 1965 demonstrations, introduced the Selma to Montgomery National Trail Study Act, which enabled the National Park Service to study a potential designation of US 80 between Montgomery and Selma as a National Trail. The study was approved on July 3, 1990, signed into affect by President George H.W. Bush as Public Law 101-321. The National Park Service tasked historians Luke Lambert and Barbara Tagger to conduct the study. In April 1993, the study was completed and awaited Congressional approval. Congress approved of the designation passing legislation to President Bill Clinton. President Clinton proceeded to sign Public Law 104-333 into effect on November 12, 1996, officially designating the 54 mile stretch of US 80 as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. The stretch of road had previously been designated as a National Scenic Byway by the Secretary of Transportation on September 19, 1996. President Clinton himself joined a commemorative march with King's widow, Coretta Scott King, and several other civil rights activists on the 35th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday.