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, ...................
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.
.............. 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.
photo from here
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And today, how ya doing
Alabama?
Today, Here's your choice to lead the nation.....
blog.spreadingsantorum.com/
The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.
Rick Santorum won Republican presidential primaries in Alabama and Mississippi ... propelling
his candidacy..............
***************-----------*****ALABAMA*****----------***************
Neil Young had a few words for you........
photo of Neil from here
here's Neil's Alabama, recorded in 1973 at Winterland........listen for the gorgeous David Lindley violin....the lyrics are at the bottom.....
Oh Alabama
The devil fools
With the best laid plan.
Swing low Alabama
You got spare change
You got to feel strange
And now the moment
Is all that it meant.
Alabama, you got
The weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac
Has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama
Banjos playing
Through the broken glass
Windows down in Alabama.
See the old folks
Tied in white ropes
Hear the banjo.
Don't it take you down home?
Alabama, you got
The weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.
Your Cadillac
Has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track
Oh Alabama.
Can I see you
And shake your hand.
Make friends down in Alabama.
I'm from a new land
I come to you
And see all this ruin
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union
To help you along
What's going wrong?
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/n/neil+young/alabama_20099012.html ]
and another song of the Southern Man by Neil Young. South, you got a lot of work to do...
