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SCLC
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) begin considering a campaign in Selma. Lyndon B. Johnson is re-elected to the US presidency. -
Rally at Brown Chapel.
Martin Luther King Jr. launches the Selma campaign with a rally at Brown Chapel. -
Union Adress
In his State of the Union address, Johnson lists voting rights for all citizens as a priority of his administration. -
Teachers Rally
105 black school teachers defy the superintendent and rally at the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma. -
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School Children Arrested
King and 500 schoolchildren are arrested in Selma; 650 African Americans march in nearby Marion.
"“There are more Negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls.” (Martin Luther King, writing from the county jail in Selma, February 5, 1965) -
Teen on the Run
Sheriff Jim Clark sends 165 black teens on a forced run out of town, pursued by patrol cars. -
March in Marion
March in Marion ends with a brutal attack. Dozens are injured; 26-year-old Jimmy Lee Jackson is shot by a state trooper. -
Jackson Dies
Jackson dies. The SCLC announces a protest march to Montgomery at his memorial service. -
Bloody Sunday
The march from Selma to Montgomery begins, but state troopers and a sheriff’s posse stop the marchers with clubs and tear gas on the far side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. TV news footage of “Bloody Sunday” interrupts a program about Nazi atrocities. King calls religious leaders to join him in Selma. -
Telegram
Dr. Homer Jack receives King’s telegram at the UUA offices in Boston and begins calling UU ministers. Orloff Miller, James Reeb, and Clark Olsen are among 40 who leave for Selma that night. -
Joining Up
450 religious leaders join 2,000 African Americans for a second march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. After praying at the site of Sunday’s attack, they return to Brown Chapel. That night, Reeb, Olsen, and Miller are attacked outside a whites-only restaurant; Reeb is fatally injured. -
Death of James Reeb
Reeb dies. Thousands protest outside the White House and in other major cities. -
Wert Now?
With the National Guard protecting them, 3,200 marchers leave Selma for Montgomery. The Rev. Richard Leonard is the only UU among the 300 marchers who complete the full march. -
Demonstrators
25,000 demonstrators join the marchers when they reach Montgomery for a final rally at the state capitol. That night, Viola Liuzzo is shot and killed by Ku Klux Klansmen as she drives toward Montgomery to pick up a carload of marchers. -
Memorial
The UUA installs a memorial to Jackson, Reeb, and Daniels in Brown Chapel. The UUA also buys a house for Jackson’s mother and establishes a fund for his family, using extra proceeds of more than $100,000 given in Reeb’s memory. -
Murderers
The three men charged in the murder of James Reeb are acquitted.