On this day in Alabama history: Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot
A marcher holds a poster of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a civil rights activist who was beaten and shot by Alabama State troopers in 1965, during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march on March 8, 2015 in Selma. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
February 18, 1965
Alabama State Trooper J. Bonard Fowler shot black activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in the stomach during protests in Marion, and Jackson died eight days later. Jackson was eulogized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on March 3, and Jackson’s death sparked the halted Selma to Montgomery March that became known as Bloody Sunday. In 2005, Fowler publicly admitted to shooting Jackson and, in 2010, the 77-year-old Fowler pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to six months in jail. A historical marker honoring Jackson now stands in front of the Perry County Courthouse in Marion.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
