Shuttlesworth in Selma

Shuttlesworth in Selma. March Route Towards a Purposeful Life. One of the last major battles in the struggle for African American civil rights came in Selma, Alabama. Despite the new Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans still faced difficulty voting. Although they had the right to vote under the Constitution, Southern governments used unjust tactics like literacy tests and poll taxes to block this right. More than half of Selma's citizens were Black, yet less than two percent of them were registered to vote. To combat this injustice, the Dallas County Voters League and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized voter registration efforts. When local officials blocked their efforts, they called on "The Big Three” leaders to bring the past successes of Montgomery and Birmingham to Selma. They came. , Paired marker , March 1965 Rev. Shuttlesworth and other SCLC leaders spoke at church rallies in Selma to mobilize the masses in nonviolent campaigns against that city's White power structure and its version of "Bull” Connor, Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark. Clark sparked national outrage when his horse-riding troops - armed with billy clubs and tear gas - attacked peaceful marchers attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 7, 1965. Known as "Bloody Sunday,” the clash inspired thousands of people across the country to join the Selma Movement. After two failed attempts to cross the bridge, the third was successful. On March 21, 1965, Rev. Shuttlesworth joined Dr. King and thousands of marchers in prayer on the bridge before crossing over it. The multi-day trek ended with more than 20,000 people protesting at the state capital in Montgomery, where Gov. George Wallace refused to meet them. White Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. James Reeb and Detroit housewife Viola Liuzzo were killed during the Selma marches. Rev. Shuttlesworth led sympathy marches for Reeb in Birmingham and Cincinnati. The Selma Movement led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. , "The absence of justice insists that we be a moral witness." , Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth , Birmingham Foor Soldier, Lesson E17: Why was the right to vote so significant for African Americans then? Is it still important today?