Voter Registration (Selma 1965)

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Voter Registration (Selma 1965)
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When and where did it happen?

• Between 1963 and 1965. The most pivotal day was
  March 7th, 1965, when Hosea Williams of the SCLC
  and John Lewis of SNCC led a march of 600 people
  to walk the 87 km from Selma to the Alabama state
  capital in Montgomery. Only six blocks into the
  march, however, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge,
  state troopers and local law enforcement attacked
  the peaceful demonstrators with clubs, tear gas,
  rubber tubes wrapped in barbed wire and bull
  whips and drove the marchers back into Selma. At
  least 16 people were hospitalised and many more
  were injured.

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Who was involved?

• It was led by the Boynton family (Amelia, Sam,
  and son Bruce), Rev. L.L. Anderson,J.L. Hosea
  Williams Chestnut, and Marie Foster, the Dallas
  County Voters League (DCVL)

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Why was it important to the Black Civil Rights
movement?

• The national broadcast of the footage of lawmen
  attacking unresisting marchers seeking the right
  to vote provoked a national response, inspiring
  protests in Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, New
  Jersey, and other cities, and caught the
  attention of the White House. The marchers were
  able to obtain a court order permitting them to
  make the march without incident two weeks later.
• President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights
  Act of 1965 on August 6.
• The Voting Rights Act, adopted initially in 1965
  and extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, is
  generally considered the most successful piece of
  civil rights legislation ever adopted by the
  United States Congress. The Act codifies and
  effectuates the 15th Amendment's permanent
  guarantee that, throughout the nation, no person
  shall be denied the right to vote on account of
  race or colour.

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How does it link to the poetry of Maya Angelou?

• The idea of keeping on going and rising, to fight
  for what you believe in can be linked to
  Angelous poem Still I Rise you may trod me
  in the very dirt/ but still like dust, Ill rise
• Angelous poem Equality also has direct links
  to protests and marches, much similar to those
  during Selma 1965 - you declare you see me
  dimly, through a glass that will not shine,
  though I stand before you boldly, trim rank and
  marking time.- Military allusions relate to the
  protestors marching together, united, ready to
  fight for the same cause. During the Selma
  incident alone, there were over 7 marches, with
  protesters beating out the same message - While
  my drums beat out the message and the rhythms
  never change.
• Angelous poems often talk about strength through
  unity and using your voice as protest (I know
  why the caged bird sings) The caged bird sings
  with a fearful trill of the things unknown, but
  longed for. Still I rise and Equality, talk
  about the struggles and successes of African
  Americans during this time.