After the March—Tent City

After the March—Tent City. . Since the federal registrars came in August of 1965, thousands and thousands of Negroes have registered to vote. White plantation owners have retaliated by mass evictions. In December 1965, over forty families either left the county, moved in with friends and relatives, or took up residence in "Tent City" in Lowndes County, Alabama. , Excerpt from memo written to Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) staff from SNCC Alabama staff members , Stokely Carmichael, Bob Mants, and Tina Harris, February 28, 1966 , In December 1965, in the field east of the interpretive center, a small cluster of canvas tents was erected and became known as "Tent City" It was home to some eight families for almost two and one-half years, following the families' eviction from their tenant farms by white landowners. Their transgression? Seeking their right to vote., Visit the Lowndes Interpretive Center and walk the path that leads to the Tent City site. Tent City represents the aftermath of a battle long fought and won for the voting rights of all Americans. Inside the interpretive center and along the path you can learn of the events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, brought about by what some call the greatest nonviolent protest of the Civil Rights Movement, the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. , During the Selma to Montgomery march, Stokely Carmichael (center) and other members of SNCC moved into Lowndes County to help black residents register to vote. At the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 there were only a handful of registered black voters in Lowndes County, even though. blacks composed 85 percent of the county's population., With the assistance of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Lowndes County Christian Movement for Human Rights purchased six and three- quarter acres of land on this site. Families who had no place else to go moved here after being evicted from their tenant homes.