Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census. The city is best known for the Selma to Montgomery marches, three civil rights marches that began in the city.
Native American lore states that Selma is built where Chief Tuskaloosa met with explorer DeSoto. The site was officially recorded in 1732 as Ecor Bienville, then later as the Moore's Bluff settlement. In 1820, Selma (meaning "high seat" or "throne") was incorporated. It was planned and named by future Vice President of the United States William R. King.
During the Civil War, Selma was one of the South's main military manufacturing centers, producing tons of supplies and munitions, and turning out Confederate warships such as the Ironclad warship Tennessee. This strategic concentration of manufacturing capabilities resulted in the Battle of Selma. Union General James H. Wilson's troops destroyed Selma's army arsenal and factories, and much of the city, in a fiery, bloody siege.
Because of its central location, production facilities and rail connections, the advantages of Selma as a site for production of cartridges, saltpeter, powder, shot and shell, rifles, cannon and steam rams soon became apparent to the Confederacy. By 1863, just about every type of war materiel was manufactured within the limits of Selma, employing at least ten thousand people. Three Ironclad warships the, Tennessee, Huntsville, and Tuscaloosa were built at Selma. A sister ship to the Tennessee was scrapped when her keel cracked when the ship was launched. Millions of dollars worth of army supplies were accumulated and distributed from Selma.
During the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s, Selma was a focal point for desegregation and voting rights campaigns. Before the Freedom Movement, all public facilities were strictly segregated. Blacks who attempted to eat at "white-only" lunch counters or sit in the downstairs "white" section of the movie theater were beaten and arrested. More than half of the city's residents were black, but only one percent were registered to vote. Blacks were prevented from registering to vote by economic retaliation organized by the White Citizens' Council, Ku Klux Klan violence, police repression, and the Literacy test. To discourage voter registration, the registration board only opened doors for registration two days a month, arrived late, and took long lunches.
On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state troopers and local sheriff's deputies attacked them with Billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.
Two days later, on March 9, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. Then, civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol building in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators.
"The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups...," said Judge Johnson, "and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways."
On Sunday, March 21, 1965, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, 1965, they were 25,000-strong.
Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.