NAAM’s Freedom Day celebrates history, culture, equity, and freedom while highlighting the importance of sharing these ideals with ALL members of our community. Freedom Day is a FREE admission day at NAAM offered once a month that provides a variety of community activities, museum activations, and programs for individuals and families of all ages to enjoy at no cost. NAAM uses Freedom Day to spotlight significant and sometimes lesser known moments throughout history that have worked to advance freedom for all.
Join NAAM for Freedom Day on March 7 & March 21
This Freedom Day NAAM is recognizing the 60th Anniversaries of two unforgettable moments in American history: Bloody Sunday on March 7 and the third/final march from Selma to Montgomery on March 21. Visit the museum on March 7 and March 21 for FREE admission to the museum.
The Impact of the Selma to Montgomery Marches
This year we are commemorating Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965) and the third/final march from Selma to Montgomery (March 21, 1965) on the 60th Anniversary of these landmark moments in American history.
On March 7, 1965, 600 people marched from Selma to Montgomery, to protest the denial of voting rights to Black Americans as well as the murder of 26-year-old activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, who had been fatally shot in the stomach by police during a peaceful protest just days before.
Led by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Reverend Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and found themselves facing a line of state and county officers. When demonstrators did not promptly obey the officers' order to disband and turn back, the officers used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights demonstrators. The troops on horseback wielded weapons and chased down fleeing men, women, and children. More than 50 marchers, including John Lewis, were later hospitalized, many with severe injuries.
Television cameras recorded the brutal assault and brought it into the homes of millions of Americans. Notably, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) interrupted its own telecast to show the events in Selma. Shocking many viewers, this attack which became known as “Bloody Sunday”, helped rouse support for the civil rights cause. Activists organized another march two days later, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged supporters from throughout the country to come to Selma to join.
On March 21, 1965, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the third/final march, 54-miles long from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Protected by hundreds of federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, the demonstrators covered between 7 to 17 miles per day. Camping at night in supporters’ yards, the marchers were entertained by celebrities such as Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne.
On the last day of the 5-day march to Alabama, the number of demonstrators grew to 25,000 while being accompanied by Assistant Attorneys General John Doar and Ramsey Clark, and former Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall. Arriving at the Alabama State Capitol Building on March 25, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “How Long, Not Long” speech which encouraged people to keep fighting for civil rights and called out both political parties for failing to do enough to ensure civil rights for Black people.
On August 6, 1965, in the presence of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recalling “the outrage of Selma,” Johnson called the right to vote “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men”.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 would see the suspension of literacy tests and directed the attorney general of the United States to challenge the use of poll taxes for state and local elections.
In his annual address to SCLC a few days later, King noted that “Montgomery led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1960; Birmingham inspired the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and Selma produced the voting rights legislation of 1965”.
The Women of Selma’s Bloody Sunday
In honor of Women’s History Month, we are celebrating the courageousness and sacrifice of the women civil rights activists and demonstrators on Bloody Sunday.
