(From left) Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Forman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Jess Douglas lead the voting rights march to the Montgomery County Courthouse.
A woman laid out in the street, unconscious. Troopers lined up, armed with batons. A telegram from Massachusetts reacting to the violence.
As a twentysomething freelance journalist at the Birmingham News, James "Spider" Martin was tasked with capturing these moments with his camera, after state troopers shot and killed civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Ala.
His death led to protests that went on for weeks, and culminated on March 7, 1965. That day became known as "Bloody Sunday," when activists attempted to peacefully march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, while on their way to Montgomery, the state's capital. They were confronted by law enforcement, who attacked 600 of the protesters using billy clubs and tear gas.
Martin snapped thousands of pictures in the days after Jackson's death, several of which gained national prominence and helped raise Americans' awareness of the calamities of the 1960s civil rights movement.
Much of his archive from those monumental Selma protests have been newly restored and is now on display at The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, in time for the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The images are also being commemorated in a book, Selma Is Now.
"Bloody Sunday changed my father, both as a man and human being, and it opened his eyes to the depth of the struggle for equal rights for African Americans in a profoundly urgent way," his daughter, Tracy Martin, says in the book. "It was during that terrifying day at that bridge that he dedicated himself to covering the march for the duration, however long it took."
Briscoe Center for American History
Alabama state troopers form a roadblock on the far side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Briscoe Center for American History
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (center left), Rev. Ralph Abernathy (center right), and Archbishop Iakovos (far right) attend a memorial service for James Reeb. Reeb, a white Unitarian minister from Massachusetts who had answered Dr. King's call for religious leaders to join the protests, was brutally attacked as he left a local Black-owned restaurant on March 9. He died two days later.
Briscoe Center for American History
Marchers lay a wreath on the steps of the Dallas County Courthouse after the memorial for James Reeb, a white minister who was murdered for joining the protests.
Briscoe Center for American History
Tear gas overwhelms the scene as marchers continue to flee or fall to the troopers' blows.
Briscoe Center for American History
Alabama state troopers in gas masks await the marchers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Briscoe Center for American History
Outside Brown Chapel AME Church, a young demonstrator keeps warm under a quilt while waiting for permission to march.
Briscoe Center for American History
Selma's Director of Public Safety, Wilson Baker, receives a telegram from a resident of Framingham, Mass., reacting to news of the Bloody Sunday violence.
Briscoe Center for American History
Troopers continue their assault on retreating marchers with tear gas and billy clubs.
Briscoe Center for American History
Andrew Young leads a prayer with Amelia Boynton, Rev. Hosea Williams, John Lewis, and Bob Mants before the first march to Montgomery on March 7, 1965.
Briscoe Center for American History
Songs provide strength amid the rain as students protest in Selma after Bloody Sunday.
Briscoe Center for American History
Marchers flee across the bridge as an unidentified woman assists a still-unconscious Amelia Boynton.
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