This Day in History

March 25, 1965: Last Selma March

Time Periods: 1961
Themes: African American, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing

The last March to Selma was on March 25, 1965.

Last Selma March 1965

Church elders on steps of the Mt. Zion AME Church, Montgomery, Alabama, watching marchers, March 25,1965. By Stephen Somerstein.

If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow.

He gave him Jim Crow. And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. And he ate Jim Crow. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Here are resources recommended by Teaching for Change to teach about the voting rights struggle in Selma.

1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights March are photographs by Stephen Somerstein.