Colleges in Selma include Selma University, and Walk in the footsteps of civil rights legends such as Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King … It is also not just a discussion of history. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. The per capita income for the city was $13,369. After the march to Montgomery the Alabama campaign began to slow down. Activists planned a larger, more public march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery to publicize their cause. Altogether Wilson had 9,000 troops available for the assault. Actually Johnson was renown as a potty mouth who openly referred to Blacks as "niggers." In the darkness, the Federals rounded up hundreds of prisoners, but hundreds more escaped down the Burnsville Road, including generals Forrest, Armstrong, and Roddey. He quickly remounted his stricken horse and ordered a dismounted assault by several regiments. In 1996 it was designated as part of the 'National Civil Rights Trail' by President Bill Clinton and is administered by the National Park Service. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman first made an effort to reach it, but after advancing from the west as far as Meridian, Mississippi, within 107 miles (172 km) of Selma, his forces retreated back to the Mississippi River. In 1935, Joe Spinner Johnson, a leader of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, which worked from 1931 to 1936 to get better pay and treatment from white planters, was beaten by a mob near his field, taken to the jail in Selma and beaten more; his body was left in a field near Greensboro.[8]. We have reviews of the best places to see in Selma. Their moral campaign had attracted thousands from across the country.[16]. Civil rights tourism has become a new source of business.[22]:146. Earthen forts were built to cover the grounds with artillery fire. US History Civil Rights Movement. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions. Selma is served by the Montgomery-Selma television Designated Market Area (DMA). In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.3% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were 65 years of age or older. Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was unarmed, was killed in a café in nearby Marion after state police broke up a peaceful protest in the town. The march was organised by Martin Luther King Jr., American Baptist minister and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The federal government provided protection in the form of National Guard and military troops. Help. The city council members are: Corey D. Bowie, City Council President; Carl Bowline, Ward 1; Susan M. Keith, Ward 2; Miah Tolbert-Jackson, Ward 3; Angela Benjamin, Ward 4; Samuel L. Randolph, Ward 5; Johnnie Leashore, Ward 6; Jannie Thomas, Ward 7; Michael Johnson, Ward 8. Selma's Bloch Park was home to Southeastern League of Professional Baseball club the Selma Cloverleafs. Once the Union Army reached the works, there was vicious hand-to-hand fighting. He had been invited by local leaders to help their movement.[14]. These are big changes, but much has not changed. Because of the brutal attacks, this became known as "Bloody Sunday." He had placed Gen. Eli Long's Division across the Summerfield Road with the Chicago Board of Trade Battery in support. As in other southern states, white Democrats regained political power in the mid-1870s after suppressing black voting through violence and fraud; Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 when federal troops were withdrawn. They walked approximately 12 miles a day and slept in nearby fields. Museums in the city include Sturdivant Hall, the National Voting Rights Museum, Historic Water Avenue, Martin Luther King, Jr. Street Historic Walking Tour, Old Depot Museum, Joe Calton Bates Children Education and History Museum, Vaughan-Smitherman Museum and Heritage Village. The city has eight elementary schools. It was a cold day for Selma, Alabama, close to freezing, and as the sun disappeared … The SCLC leaders left having organized the citizens of Selma and further efforts to petition the governor died down. I agree with an essay SUNY Geneseo professor of history Emilye Crosby wrote for the Zinn Education Project that the biggest problem with the movie is that its intense focus on the role of Martin Luther King and the first three months of 1965 takes attention away from the long struggle by the people of Selma and many others active in the Civil Rights movement to bring the issue of African American voting rights to a head in the United States. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. They were anchored on the north and south by the Alabama River. After the outer works fell, General Wilson led the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in a mounted charge down the Range Line Road toward the unfinished inner line of works. King pulled the marchers back from entering the county and having another confrontation with county and state forces. Mixed units of Confederate troops had also occupied the Selma railroad depot and the adjoining banks of the railroad bed to make a stand next to the Plantersville Road (present day Broad Street). However, my greatest concern with the story told in the movie Selma is that it presents the final march from Selma to the Alabama state capital in Montgomery and the Voting Rights Act as a triumphant conclusion to the African American Civil Rights Movement. In June 1893, a lynch mob numbering 100 men seized "a black man named Daniel Edwards from the Selma jail, hanged him from a tree, and fired multiple rounds into his body" for allegedly becoming intimate with a white woman. Selma, AL Directions {{::location.tagLine.value.text}} Sponsored Topics. In Selma, with a population of a little over 20,000 people, 80% of whom are African American, the official unemployment rate hovers at about 12%, more than twice the national average. Push for Voting Rights Sparked Selma Protests. It was initiated and organized by James Bevel, SCLC's Director of Direct Action, who was directing SCLC's Selma Movement. I suspect that fifty years later, with increased school segregation, police attacks on Black men, continued poverty, and the loss of voting rights protection, Dr. King would give a very similar speech. There were 9,264 housing units at an average density of 668.3 per square mile (258.0/km2). Legal. Over forty percent of households are single parent families, compared to about 17% in the United States as a whole. Many soldiers were struck down with clubbed muskets, but they kept pouring into the works with their greater numbers. Gen. Emory Upton's Division was placed across the Range Line Road with Battery I, 4th US Artillery in support. Forrest's defenders consisted of his Tennessee escort company, McCullough's Missouri Regiment, Crossland's Kentucky Brigade, Roddey's Alabama Brigade, Frank Armstrong's Mississippi Brigade, General Daniel W. Adams' state reserves, and the citizens of Selma who were "volunteered" to man the works. The Federal commander's plan was for Upton to send in a 300-man detachment after dark to cross the swamp on the Confederate right; enter the works, and begin a flanking movement toward the center moving along the line of fortifications. Anderson of Tabernacle Baptist Church, J.L. Chestnut (Selma's first black attorney), SCLC Citizenship School teacher Marie Foster, public school teacher Marie Moore, Frederick D. Reese and others active with the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL). Things to Do in Selma, Alabama: See Tripadvisor's 1,921 traveler reviews and photos of Selma tourist attractions. The median age was 36 years. Forrest was wounded by a saber-wielding Union captain, whom he shot and killed with his revolver. Later Anglo-Americans called it the Moore's Bluff settlement. On March 30, 1865, Union General James H. Wilson detached Gen. John T. Croxton's brigade to destroy all Confederate property at Tuscaloosa. The official website of Selma Alabama describes it as the "Queen City of the Black Belt" and the "Butterfly Capital of Alabama." It was the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers viciously attacked black civil rights activists who marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Today is National Voter Registration Day! The population density was 1,479.6 square miles (3,832 km2). Dallas County, Alabama, where Selma is located, is the poorest county in a very poor state. But history is much more complicated. Reese, Marie Foster, and Amelia Boynton. After the Supreme Court case Smith v. Allwright (1944) ended the use of white primaries by the Democratic Party, the Alabama state legislature passed a law giving voting registrars more authority to challenge prospective voters under the literacy test. The fighting there was heavy, but by 7 p.m. the superior numbers of Union troops had managed to flank the Southern positions. if he has a whole bunch of secret service. St. James Hotel and a portion of Water Avenue in Selma, Queen City of the Black Belt, Butterfly Capital of Alabama. The city was planned and named as Selma by William R. King, a politician and planter from North Carolina who was a future vice president of the United States. Selma was a trading center and market town during the antebellum years of King Cotton in the South. The Mayor of Selma, George Patrick Evans, is African American, as is the City Council president, seven of the ten members of the City Council, the Chief of Police, and all five members of the school board. The clashes didn’t discourage King: he organised two other marches shortly after. Taylor did so after giving Forrest command of the defense. Selma was protected by fortifications that circled much of the city; it was protected on the north and south by the Alabama River. However, seven years later, blacks had not been able to elect a candidate of their choice to the city council. 0 0. The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates fought for more than an hour as reinforcements of Union cavalry and artillery were deployed. Check flight prices and hotel availability for your visit. 6 years ago. In less than 30 minutes, Long's men had captured the works protecting the Summerfield Road. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. County law enforcement was run by an elected county sheriff, whose jurisdiction included the grounds of the county courthouse. ©2021 Verizon Media. As a result of the focus on King, two of the civil rights movement's more powerful vignettes, both covered in the documentary Eyes on the Prize, are left out of the movie. Beginning in January 1965, SCLC and SNCC initiated a revived voting-rights campaign designed to focus national attention on the systematic denial of black voting rights in Alabama, and particularly in Selma. When the war ended three weeks later, they were en route to Columbus and Macon, Georgia. [5], During the Civil War, Selma was one of the South's main military manufacturing centers, producing many supplies and munitions, and building Confederate warships such as the ironclad Tennessee. They escaped in the darkness by swimming across the Alabama River near the mouth of Valley Creek (where the present day Battle of Selma Reenactment is held.). Wilson sent a brigade to destroy the bridge across the Cahaba River at Centreville, which cut off most of Forrest's reinforcements from reaching the area. Selma Interpretive Centre marks the beginning of the National Historic … As a result of poor student performance, a state team has taken over day-to-day operation of the public schools headed by acting Superintendent Larry DiChiara, who is White. The 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) library is in downtown Selma.[27]. 0 0. L.L. Threatened with a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, the council voted to adopt a system of electing its ten members from single-member districts. In August 2012, plans were announced to build a larger monument, more resistant to vandalism, but many African Americans object to it because of his established history as a postwar leader with the KKK and his earlier involvement in the massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow. The state ranks 49th in school funding and since 2008 leads the nation in state budget cuts to public education. King's question, "Where Do We Go from Here? He began a running fight with Forrest's forces that did not end until after the fall of Selma. [23], As part of its Civil War history, a monument to native Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General, was installed in Old Live Oak Cemetery. [10], In early 1963, Bernard Lafayette and Colia Lafayette of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began organizing in Selma alongside local civil rights leaders Sam, Amelia and Bruce Boynton, Rev. On Sunday, March 21, 1965, approximately 3,200 marchers departed for Montgomery. In the documentary we learn how during the "Bloody Sunday" police attack on marchers on Edmund Pettus Bridge, Hosea Williams, one of the march's leaders, carried an eight-year old girl to safety. DirecTV and Dish Network provide direct broadcast satellite television including both local and national channels to area residents. The works had been built two years earlier,[clarification needed] and while neglected for the most part since, were still formidable. The Jim Crow laws and customs were enforced with violence. Finally, a Union cavalry charge broke the Confederate militia, causing Forrest to be flanked on his right. Later, the Black community gathered in Brown Chapel AME Church. What was the first date that protesters were assembled in Selma, AL on the Court House steps having their picture taken by National TV (NBC). The Europeans encountered the historic Native American people known as the Muscogee (also known as the Creek), who had been in the area for hundreds of years. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.10. A single gun from Upton's artillery would signal the attack to be undertaken by the entire Federal Corps. Industries in Selma include International Paper, Bush Hog (agricultural equipment), Plantation Patterns, American Apparel, and Peerless Pump Company (LaBour), Renasol, and Hyundai. Governor George Wallace had vowed that the march would not be permitted. The Selma iron works and foundry was considered the second-most important source of weaponry for the South, after the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. Altogether this force numbered less than 4,000. Because of its military importance, Selma had been fortified by three miles of earthworks that ran in a semicircle around the city. In 1901, the state legislature passed a new constitution with electoral provisions, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, that effectively disenfranchised most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites, leaving them without representation in government, and deprived them of participation in juries and other forms of citizenship. Selma To Build Monument Honoring KKK Founder", "Monument to Civil War general, Ku Klux Klan leader triggers controversy", "SelmaDallas County Public Library Main Page", "Selma, 50 years after march, remains a city divided", National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, Institute of Southern Jewish Life, History of Selma, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Selma,_Alabama&oldid=996864186, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox settlement with possible nickname list, Pages using infobox settlement with possible area code list, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from August 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz area identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Selma was featured in the 1999 Disney television movie, This page was last edited on 28 December 2020, at 23:53. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.4 square miles (37 km2), of which 13.9 square miles (36 km2) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2) is water.[19]. An Auburn man caught on camera while storming the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 is now facing charges from the federal government, including civil disorder, entering a … Their cause must be our cause too. The median income for a household in the city was $21,261, and the median income for a family was $28,345. As of the census of 2000, there were 20,512 people, 8,196 households, and 5,343 families living in the city. As a teacher and teacher educator, I hope other teachers find this useful as they plan Martin Luther King Day lessons. Location of Selma in Dallas County, Alabama. In consequence, Negroes are still impoverished aliens in an affluent society." On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 civil rights marchers departed Selma on U.S. Highway 80, heading east to the capital. About 26.9% of families and 31.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.8% of those under age 18 and 28.0% of those age 65 or over. In 1967, Martin Luther King told the SCLC convention, "With all the struggle and all the achievements, we must face the fact, however, that the Negro still lives in the basement of the Great Society. In modern times, the city is best known for the 1960s civil rights movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches, beginning with "Bloody Sunday" in 1965 and ending with 25,000 people entering Montgomery at the end of the last march to press for voting rights. For every 100 females, there were 78.2 males. Nearly half of Selma's residents were black, but because of the restrictive electoral laws and practices in place since the turn of the century, only one percent were registered to vote, preventing them from serving on juries or serving in local office. Anonymous. 29 … Selma has four private K–12 schools: John T. Morgan Academy, founded in 1965, Meadowview Christian School, Ellwood Christian Academy, and Cathedral Christian Academy. [6] Planters and other slaveholders struggled with how to deal with freed slaves after the war. Even boosters like state house speaker Mike Hubbard concede Alabama ranks in the bottom half of the states in student performance by every measure including 44th in overall K-12 student achievement. The current mayor is Darrio Melton. The racial makeup of the city was 70.68% Black or African American, 28.77% White, 0.10% Native American, 0.56% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.66% from two or more races. [3] About 80% of the population is African-American. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in January. The Southern artillery had only solid shot on hand, while a short distance away was an arsenal which produced tons of canister, a highly effective anti-personnel ammunition. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. The Confederates abandoned the depot as well as the inner line of works. The racial makeup of the city was 80.3% Black or African American, 18.0% White, 0.20% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.1% other races, 0.80% from two or more races and Hispanics or Latinos, of any race, comprised 0.60% of the population. King and other civil-rights leaders filed for court protection for a third, larger-scale march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. [9] All the members of the city council were elected by at-large voting. This injunction temporarily halted civil-rights activity until Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. defied it by speaking to a crowd about the struggle at Brown Chapel AME Church on January 2, 1965. It was covered by national press and television news, reaching many American and international homes.[15]. It provided for federal oversight and enforcement of voting rights for all citizens in state or jurisdictions where patterns of underrepresentation showed discrimination against certain populations such as ethnic minorities. By March 1966, a year after the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, nearly 11,000 blacks had registered to vote in Selma, where 12,000 whites were registered. 5 years ago. The Confederacy's Greatest Cavalryman by Brian Steel Wills, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southeastern League of Professional Baseball, "Selma, Alabama memorializes lynching victims, March 05, 2018", "Selma & the March to Montgomery-A Discussion November–June, 2004–2005", Ari Berman, "Fifty Years After Bloody Sunday in Selma, Everything and Nothing Has Changed", "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990", David J. Krajicek, "On the Road to Selma, a Jim Crow Relic", "Shameful! Shot and killed him Line Road to Summerfield Road a third, march... 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