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Dr. King and 770 Others Arrested in Selma

Feb. 1, 1965 - Dr. Martin Luther King and more than 770 other Negroes were arrested in Selma, Ala., today while demonstrating against Alabama’s voter-registration requirements. 

About 500 of those arrested were students who stayed out of school and picketed the Dallas County Courthouse, where registration was underway. Sheriff James Clark arrested 37 for contempt of court. The others were hauled away in school buses and turned over to the county juvenile judge for truancy proceedings.

Dr. King, who has been arrested about 30 times since 1955, and 263 adults were arrested earlier in the day by the city of Selma on charges of parading without a permit. They were on their way to the courthouse to stand in the voter-registration line and to protest to the Board of Registrars against difficult literacy tests and slow procedures.

After six hours in jail, the adults who were residents of Selma were released without bail pending arraignment later in the month. Dr. King, however, declined to post the $200 bond required of nonresident defendants and remained in jail.

“If Negroes could vote,” Dr. King told a rally before the march, “there would be no Jim Clarks, there would be no oppressive poverty directed against Negroes, our children would not be crippled by segregated schools, and the whole community might live together in harmony.”

“This is our intention,” he said — “to declare war on the evils of demagoguery. The entire community will join in this protest, and we will not relent until there is a change in the voting process and the establishment of democracy.”



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© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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