At Canaan's Edge (183 page)

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Two paths to freedom. On the third try, March 21, 1965, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Maurice Eisendrath, and Abraham Heschel
(front row, left to right, from nun)
step off from Selma, Alabama, in a nonviolent march to Montgomery for the right to vote.

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That same month, Marines lead the first U. S. combat units ashore at Danang to secure a non-Communist South Vietnam.

3

On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, Alabama State Troopers and a sheriff's posse in clouds of tear gas trample the first attempted voting rights march out of Selma.

4

Registrar Carl Golson rebukes petitioners led by King, Abernathy
(behind finger)
, and SNCC Chairman John Lewis
(right of King)
in Lowndes County, between Selma and Montgomery, where no black citizen had voted in the twentieth century.

5

Outside Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, a helmeted sheriff's posse blockades those who have answered King's call to complete the voting rights march.

6

Behind a “Berlin Wall” imposed by Alabama authorities, marchers sing freedom songs in a round-the-clock vigil.

7

After a week of political upheaval, King watches from Selma as President Lyndon Johnson endorses the voting rights movement in a speech to Congress.

8

Under court-ordered federal protection, the march covers 54 miles over five days, led here by King
(in white cap)
, Coretta King, James Bevel, John Lewis
(behind and to right)
, and Ivanhoe Donaldson
(below flagpole, in boots)
, with Andrew Young and James Orange
(far left)
.

9

As marchers stretch out from Selma into Lowndes County by day.

10

Jubilant local residents greet the procession along Highway 80.

11

Beneath the dome of Alabama's capitol, where Gov. George Wallace watches behind drawn blinds, a great host completes the march to Montgomery on March 25, 1965.

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