Selma, Alabama
As the economic and political hub of Alabama’s Black Belt, Selma was also the home to strong Black institutions, including the Dallas County Voters League. Under the leadership of S.W. and Amelia Boynton, the league had been working to register Black voters since the 1930s. In 1963, SNCC’s Bernard Lafayette and Colia Liddell (Lafayette) joined the local Movement and lent their efforts to the burgeoning voting rights campaign. In 1965, Selma earned national notoriety when Sheriff Jim Clark and his posse and Alabama state troopers violently accosted nonviolent protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
People
- Amelia Boynton
- Annie Lee Cooper
- Bernard Lafayette
- Bettie Mae Fikes
- Charles Bonner
- Colia Liddell (Lafayette)
- Diane Nash
- Fay Bellamy (Powell)
- James Bevel
- John Lewis
- Maria Varela
- Martha Prescod (Norman)
- Prathia Hall
- Silas Norman
- Worth Long
