Selma

January 2, 1965, the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) partnered up with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in order to register black voters. While SNCC had been working on this since 1963, there was a lot of resistance and the aid of Martin Luther King, Jr. and SCLC were needed. On the 2nd, the Selma Voting Rights Movement officially began. 

Photo: crmvet.org

Selma, Alabama was the county seat of Dallas County, which had a majority black population but less than 1% were registered to vote. When the Dallas County Voters League attempted to register the black citizens, state and local officials put an end to that through fear and literacy tests. Jim Crow reigned supreme in Dallas County, Alabama. 

 Photo: dailykos.com

The Mayor of Selma, Joe Smitherman was considered a moderate and was very concerned about the city's image. The Chief of Police was Wilson Baker, who desired to put an end to civil rights protests but in such a way that violence was not escalated, like Police Chief Laurie Pritchett had done in Albany, Georgia. The Dallas County Sheriff on the other hand, Jim Clark, commanded a posse of deputies who included Ku Klux Klan members and wished to violently enforce Jim Crow laws. 

Photo: lbjlibrary.org

January 2 was the beginning of a time of bloody violence in Selma, Alabama.