top of page
Search

Hundreds More Arrested in Selma

Feb. 2, 1965 - While the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King lay on his jailhouse bunk reading the Bible today, about 520 of his followers were arrested in scattered clashes with the authorities in Selma, Ala.

Negro high-school students were picked up by the hundreds when some of them broke ranks during a march and started running through the alleys to get to the Dallas County Courthouse.

Only a few minutes before, Sheriff James Clark arrested about 120 Negro adults on contempt-of-court charges as they stood in line outside the courthouse, where they had sought an audience with the County Board of Registrars.

It was the second consecutive day of mass arrests in Dr. King’s campaign to speed the registration of Negro voters in the Alabama “Black Belt.” Dr. King and more than 770 others were taken into custody yesterday.

The arrests had the effect of rejuvenating the Negro community just as the campaign seemed to be on the verge of dying. An aide of Dr. King said the civil rights leader now expected to be in Selma for “some time to come.”

Of those arrested yesterday, all but Dr. King and a few others were released during the night. Despite a bitter cold wave, most of them were back at the Browns Chapel Methodist Church early today ready to demonstrate again.

Sheriff Clark, shivering in his Eisenhower jacket, started the day by coming to the church and taking away John Love, the local head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Mr. Love — a young Negro from New York who wears sneakers, tailored dungarees, a red jacket, and one earring — was charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors in connection with yesterday’s school boycott.



Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s

Comments


© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

bottom of page