In less than the time allotted, they were attacked by the law enforcement officers with nightsticks and teargas, violently driving them back into Selma. John Cloud that they had two minutes to return back to their church and homes. The non-violent protesters were told by Maj. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met by state troopers and local volunteer officers of the sheriff's department who blocked their path. Church in Selma with the intent on marching 54-miles to Montgomery, as a memorial to Jimmie Lee Jackson and to protest for voter's rights. On March 7 th, approximately 600 non-violent protestors, the vast majority being African-American, departed from Brown Chapel A.M.E. In response to Jackson's death, a march to the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery was planned - Sunday, March 7th, was the chosen day for the first march attempt. Jackson was shot in the abdomen and died from his wounds on February 26 th, 1965. James Orange from the Perry County Jail, in Marion, AL, Alabama state troopers violently broke up the demonstration, resulting in the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a civil rights activist and Perry County native. On the evening of February 18 th, 1965 during a protest to free SCLC supporter Rev. Protests against voter registration discrimination increased in the county and nearby areas, with many of them often met by violence from the local sheriff's department, leaving many wondering what was going to happen next. The Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson The barriers to voting in the these counties had prompted Black community leaders in Selma to organize and create the Dallas County Voter's League, and by the 1960's, the movement gained national attention with civil rights groups and activists protesting in Selma in order to bring awareness to these voting injustices. Because of this, 0% of the African American population in Lowndes County was able to vote, and only 2% percent in Dallas County. In the years of post-reconstruction Jim Crow laws, suppression of African American citizens' right to vote through the use of targeted voter registration restrictions and intimidation was widespread in the American South. NPS Photo Dallas, Lowndes, and Montgomery Counties in the Early 1900s Map and timeline of the historic march route from Selma to Montgomery
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