Jimmie Lee Jackson Buried in Marion, Ala.

Mar. 3, 1965 - Jimmie Lee Jackson was proclaimed a martyr and buried in a country graveyard in Marion, Ala., today.

About 4,000 Negroes attended two funeral services for him, the first at Selma this morning and the second at Marion this afternoon. More than 1,000 walked three miles in rain to bury him on a pine hill.

Dr. Martin Luther King preached his funeral at Marion, Jackson’s hometown, taking the occasion to pledge increased determination in the Negro’s struggle for equal rights.

Dr. King told a crowd of hundreds where he thought the blame lay for the death of the 26-year-old Jackson, who was fatally injured as Alabama state troopers broke up a civil rights night march Feb. 18 at Marion. He was shot in the stomach and clubbed.

Today, the Rev. James Bevel, Alabama project director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, announced that a group of Negroes would walk the 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery next week, starting Sunday, to dramatize the drive for voting rights. He said Dr. King would lead the walk.

“We are going to see the Governor,” Rev. Bevel said.

“[Jackson] was murdered by the indifference of every white minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of his stained-glass windows,” Dr. King said.

“He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician from governors on down who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.

“He was murdered by the timidity of a Federal Government that is willing to spend millions of dollars a day to defend freedom in Vietnam but cannot protect the rights of its citizens at home.

“He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff who practices lawlessness in the name of the law.

“And he was murdered by the cowardice of every Negro who passively accepts the evils of segregation and stands on the sidelines in the struggle for justice.”

Jackson’s assailant has not been identified, although Blanchard McLeod of Camden, the circuit prosecutor for the district including Marion and Perry County, said he had a signed statement from the person responsible. McLeod is holding the information for a Perry County grand jury.

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