Trip to Selma Alabama

The Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate brigadier general, and eventual U.S. Senator, is a bridge in Selma, Alabama. It is famous as the site of the conflict of Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965), where armed officers attacked peaceful civil rights demonstrators who were attempting to march to the state capital of Montgomery. The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American Civil Rights Movement. They were the culmination of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by Amelia Boynton and her husband. Boynton brought many prominent leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement to Selma, including James Bevel, who initiated and organized the march; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Hosea Williams. The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march took place on March 9. Only the third march, which began on March 21 and lasted five days, made it to Montgomery, 54 miles (87 km) away.