Keeping in Shape: Federalized National Guard units keep in condition by doing close order drill to keep in shape and pass the time away as they stand by in Montgomery, Alabama, in case of trouble over the weekend. This group is Headquarter Battery 1st Howitzer Battalion from Andalusia, Alabama. They are part of the troops that guarded the 50-mile hike by civil rights groups this week from Selma to Montgomery. March 27, 1965

1965

Keeping in Shape: Federalized National Guard units keep in condition by doing close order drill to keep in shape and pass the time away as they stand by in Montgomery, Alabama, in case of trouble over the weekend. This group is Headquarter Battery 1st Howitzer Battalion from Andalusia, Alabama. They are part of the troops that guarded the 50-mile hike by civil rights groups this week from Selma to Montgomery. March 27, 1965, 1965. Horace Cort (American, 1913–1988). Gelatin silver print, wirephoto; image: 16.5 x 23.5 cm (6 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.); paper: 20.4 x 25.4 cm (8 1/16 x 10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2021.30 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.