“We Shall Overcome”: LBJ and the 1965 Voting Rights Act

On March 15, just over a week after Bloody Sunday, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson introduced voting rights legislation in an address to a joint session of Congress. In what became a famous speech, he identified the clash in Selma as a turning point in U.S. history akin to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolution. Invoking the protest song that had become the unofficial anthem of the American civil rights movement, Johnson said:

What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.

Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

And we shall overcome.

Members of Congress interrupted Johnson’s speech with applause some 40 times. In Selma King wept.

“How Long, Not Long”: Selma to Montgomery

On March 17, after several days of testimony, Judge Johnson ruled in favour of the protestors, saying,

The law is clear that the right to petition one’s government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups…and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.

Under the terms of the ruling, an unlimited number of people would be permitted to begin and finish the march (which was required to be completed in five days), but only 300 marchers were to be allowed to cover the 22-mile (35-km) two-lane portion of U.S. Highway 80 that passed through Lowndes county.

In the days before the start of the renewed march, Governor Wallace indicated (or at least implied) in a phone call with President Johnson that the Alabama National Guard would protect the marchers. Then, addressing the state legislature, the governor announced that he expected the federal government to “provide for the safety and welfare of the so-called demonstrators.” Ultimately, Wallace sent a telegram to the president saying that Alabama could not afford to provide protection for the marchers and asking the federal government to do so. On March 20 a furious President Johnson responded by federalizing the command of elements of the Alabama National Guard and dispatching the U.S. Army.

On March 21 King led marchers (estimates of their number vary but generally fall between 3,000 and 8,000) out of Selma, over the Pettus Bridge, and on the road to Montgomery. En route protection was provided by more than 1,800 Alabama National Guardsmen and about 2,000 soldiers, as well as federal marshals and FBI agents. The marchers, whose numbers swelled to about 25,000 along the way, covered the roughly 50 miles (80 km) to Montgomery in five days, arriving at the state capital on March 25.

There King addressed the crowd, delivering what would become known as his “How Long, Not Long” speech, which culminated in his recitation of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”:

I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?…How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?”

…How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Once adopted by Congress and signed into law (August 6), the Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests, provided for federal approval of proposed changes to voting laws or procedures (“preclearance”) in jurisdictions that had previously used tests to determine voter eligibility, and directed the attorney general of the United States to challenge the use of poll taxes for state and local elections.

In 1996 an act of Congress created the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. An interpretive centre operated by the National Park Service is located in Lowndes county at roughly the halfway point between Selma and Montgomery.