Jan. 2, 1965 - Dr. Martin Luther King said tonight he would call for massive street demonstrations if Alabama Negroes were not permitted to register to vote in larger numbers.
Dr. King, sounding a call for a new Negro voter registration drive throughout Alabama, pledged a “march on the ballot boxes by the thousands” if necessary.
The winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize told 700 cheering Negroes in the Browns Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma that Alabama kept down Negro registration by limiting the amount of registration time.
“If they refuse to register us,” he said, “we will appeal to Governor Wallace. If he doesn’t listen, we will appeal to the Legislature.
“If the Legislature doesn’t listen, we will seek to arouse the Federal Government by marching by the thousands by the places of registration.
“We must be willing to go to jail by the thousands. We are not asking — we are demanding the ballot.”
This “black belt” city of 28,000 was chosen for the opening of the drive because it has become a symbol of bitter-end resistance to the civil rights movement in the Deep South.
Dallas County, of which Selma is the seat, has more Negro residents than white, yet only about 300 Negroes are registered, Dr. King said. The books are open for registration two days a month. He said a maximum of 30 persons can register in a day, and fewer than that number are accepted.
Previously, Negro demonstrations and civil rights meetings in Selma had been put down by Dallas County Sheriff James Clark and members of his special posse.
Sheriff Clark, however, was in Miami tonight, where he had attended last night’s Orange Bowl football game.
Negroes in Selma have complained in a Justice Department lawsuit that they were attacked by Clark’s officers without cause after a Negro rally last summer.
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