Civil Rights Activists, Turned Back, Kneel in Prayer

Mar. 5, 1965 - In Camden, Ala., today, more than 150 Negroes made two right-to-vote marches on the courthouse. Both times they were halted by armed police on the outskirts of the town. 

The second wave of marchers (pictured) knelt and prayed and sat alongside the road for approximately 1½ hours after they were stopped by Mayor F.R. Albritton and eight helmeted policemen. Three officers were armed with shotguns, and all carried nightsticks.

Albritton, a service station operator in the west central Alabama town of about 2,500, told the Negro leaders of both the morning and afternoon marches that they had no parade permit, and he would not let them march.

The Negroes asked, “Can we pray?” after Albritton stopped them on the second procession. They knelt down in prayer; later they sang.

Newsmen were kept back from the confrontations. No Negroes vote in Wilcox County, though they are 78% of the population.

Civil rights leaders in adjoining counties were organizing today for a march on the Alabama capitol at Montgomery. Dr. Martin Luther King said the march would start Sunday from Selma.

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