March to Montgomery

Mar. 25, 1965 - Dr. Martin Luther King led 25,000 Negroes and whites to the shadow of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., today and challenged Alabama to put an end to racial discrimination.

Governor George Wallace sent word about 2 p.m. that he would receive a delegation from the marchers after the rally, but the delegation met twice with rebuffs when it tried to see him. 

The Alabama Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery ended shortly after noon at the foot of the Capitol steps, and as people from all over the nation stood facing the white-columned statehouse, Dr. King assured them:“We are not about to turn around. We are on the move now. Yes, we are on the move, and no wave of racism can stop us.”

The throng let out a mighty cheer, so loud that it was easily audible 75 yards away in the office of Gov. Wallace, where the Governor was seen several times parting the venetian blinds of a window overlooking the rally.

The march was hailed by several speakers as the greatest demonstration in the history of the civil rights movement. The caravan that followed Dr. King up Dexter Avenue, up the broad slope that once accommodated the inaugural parade of the President of the Confederate States of America, comprised friends of the civil rights movement from all sections of America and some from abroad.

Federal troops who guarded the marchers and brought them safely to Montgomery were out in force at the Capitol today. Eight hundred troops lined Dexter Avenue, one soldier about every 25 feet behind wooden barricades set between the street and the sidewalks.

Tension was high in the city, particularly after the rally, as the thousands of visitors scurried for taxis, buses, trains, cars, and airplanes to get out of town before nightfall.

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