On Duty in Alabama: Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, march down a street at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama Saturday. They were sent to Alabama for possible use in the Selma-Montgomery march, March 20, 1965

1965

On Duty in Alabama: Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, march down a street at Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama Saturday. They were sent to Alabama for possible use in the Selma-Montgomery march, March 20, 1965, 1965. J. Spencer Jones (American). Gelatin silver print, wirephoto; image: 16.6 x 27.8 cm (6 9/16 x 10 15/16 in.); paper: 16.6 x 27.8 cm (6 9/16 x 10 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.29 Protests demanding equal voting rights for Blacks were met with resistance, arrests, and sometime, violence. Alabama became the focus of these protests, culminating in the famous 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on March 21-25, 1965. Press coverage, especially photographs, aroused public awareness and helped lead, five months later, to passage of the national Voting Rights Act, which allowed Black voters to challenge restrictions and greatly strengthened their participation in elections. Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning racial discrimination in voting, Blacks in southern states were still being denied voting access in 1965.