Thursday Turn in Suffixes at Last Common Transitions Handout “We Shall Overcome” Analyze Rhetorical Situation Turn in blue copies Homework: Print off two articles about the topic you have been reading about for your research project For one of the articles, complete the 2 page PAL BEG form

1961: Selma, Dallas County, Alabama 57% of residents are black of those black residents are old enough to vote 130 of black residents old enough to vote are registered 80% of those black residents live below the poverty line

Why were fewer than 1% of eligible black voters registered? KKK Voter drives were interrupted by violence and death threats state & local officials blacks trying to desegregate local businesses were beaten and arrested black teachers who registered were fired applicants arrested at City Hall Red tape Voter registration only allowed 2x/month Literacy tests to register Groups of 3 or more discussing voter registration or civil rights became illegal

2 July 1964 Segregation becomes illegal when President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. Segregationists step up their efforts to keep black people disenfranchised.

Early 1965 January: the Selma Voting Rights Movement formally begins. February: Jimmie Lee Jackson is shot by a State Trooper as he runs away from the attacks at a civil rights demonstration. A protest march, involving more than 500 protesters, from Selma to Montgomery is planned to ask Governor George Wallace to protect black voter registrants.

Police wait for marchers to come across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965.

Alabama state troopers attack civil-rights demonstrators outside Selma, Alabama, on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.

7 March 1965 Protesters refused to disperse. State Troopers knocked protesters to the ground, beat them with nightsticks, fired teargas, and charged the crowd while on horseback. 17 protesters were hospitalized.

Following Bloody Sunday A second march was organized for 9 March 2500 marchers gathered 3 white participants were attacked; James Reeb died two days later.

A Third March A judge upholds the right of the protesters to march in protest, ruling against the State of Alabama On 21 March, almost 8,000 people gather for a 54 mile march to the State Capital in Montgomery. Only 300 people were allowed to march on the two-lane part of the highway Marchers were guarded by 2,000 Army soldiers, 1,900 Federally directed National Guardsmen, FBI agents, and Federal Marshals

25 March 25,000 people gather at the steps of the State Capitol That night, a white woman driving people back to Selma was shot by members of the KKK who were accompanied by a member of the FBI. The woman, a mother from Detroit, was later smeared as a communist by the FBI to cover up the shooting.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel later wrote, "When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying."