March 25, 1965

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “How long? Not long” speech to a crowd of 25,000 at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March in Montgomery. The march was the culmination of a series of voting rights demonstrations in Selma that saw violent encounters with law enforcement officials and white supremacists, including the infamous “Bloody Sunday” on March 7. The publicity generated by the demonstrations ultimately played a significant role in the U.S. Congress adopting the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Today, the Selma to Montgomery National Voting Rights Trail is preserved by the National Park Service.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The protest march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965 generated widespread pressure on the U.S. Congress to pass the Voting Rights Bill of 1965. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of The Birmingham News)

Protesters cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River during the Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights in March 1965. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to the crowd in Selma, Dallas County, after the first attempt at the march was aborted on March 9, 1965. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

More than 20,000 civil rights marchers crowd Dexter Avenue in front of the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery on March 25, 1965, as the Selma to Montgomery March comes to an end. (Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Library of Congress)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.