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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.03.15 16:01l 56 Lines 2613 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 50669_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 20
Path: IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150320/1459Z 50669@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1965
LBJ sends federal troops to Alabama
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies
Alabama's Governor George Wallace that he will use federal
authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to
supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
Intimidation and discrimination had earlier prevented Selma's
black population-over half the city-from registering and voting.
On Sunday, March 7, 1965, a group of 600 demonstrators marched on
the capital city of Montgomery to protest this disenfranchisement
and the earlier killing of a black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a
state trooper. In brutal scenes that were later broadcast on
television, state and local police attacked the marchers with
billy clubs and tear gas. TV viewers far and wide were outraged
by the images, and a protest march was organized just two days
after "Bloody Sunday" by Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King turned the
marchers around, however, rather than carry out the march without
federal judicial approval.
After an Alabama federal judge ruled on March 18 that a third
march could go ahead, President Johnson and his advisers worked
quickly to find a way to ensure the safety of King and his
demonstrators on their way from Selma to Montgomery. The most
powerful obstacle in their way was Governor Wallace, an outspoken
anti-integrationist who was reluctant to spend any state funds on
protecting the demonstrators. Hours after promising Johnson-in
telephone calls recorded by the White House-that he would call
out the Alabama National Guard to maintain order, Wallace went on
television and demanded that Johnson send in federal troops
instead.
Furious, Johnson told Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to
write a press release stating that because Wallace refused to use
the 10,000 available guardsmen to preserve order in his state,
Johnson himself was calling the guard up and giving them all
necessary support. Several days later, 50,000 marchers followed
King some 54 miles, under the watchful eyes of state and federal
troops. Arriving safely in Montgomery on March 25, they watched
King deliver his famous "How Long, Not Long" speech from the
steps of the Capitol building. The clash between Johnson and
Wallace-and Johnson's decisive action-was an important turning
point in the civil rights movement. Within five months, Congress
had passed the Voting Rights Act, which Johnson proudly signed
into law on August 6, 1965.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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