On March 20,1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notified Alabama's Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Wallace refused, so Johnson himself called the guard up and gave them all necessary support. Several days later, 50,000 marchers followed Martin Luther King Jr. some 54 miles, under the watchful eyes of
state and federal troops. Upon arriving in Montgomery on March 25, they watched King deliver his famous "How Long, Not Long" speech from the steps of the Capitol building. This clash between Johnson and Wallace was an important turning point in the civil rights movement. Within five months, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which Johnson proudly signed into law on August 6, 1965.
|