Martin Luther King.

March 7: first Selma march.

On this day in 1965, US state troopers assault scores of demonstrators demanding better voting rights for blacks as they attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery. 

The day, which became known as "Bloody Sunday" is widely credited for galvanizing the American's leaders and ultimately yielded passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On February 26, 1965, activist and deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson died after being mortally shot several days earlier by a state trooper during a peaceful march in Marion, Alabama.

 

On 25 March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr., led thousands of non-violent crusaders to the completion of a 54-mile pilgrimage from Selma to Montgomery. The march, which King described as “a shining moment in the conscience of man,” was the culmination of a three-month campaign to eliminate African American disenfranchisement in Alabama.