Civil Rights in Alabama
Race relations were explosive in Alabama in the 1950s and '60s. Just decades after the passage of Jim Crow laws that reinforced "separate but equal" treatment, civil rights advocates worked to end racial segregation. Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus, and Martin Luther King, Jr., led a boycott that ended separate seating in Montgomery, the city considered the cradle of the Confederacy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in 1954, but Alabama avoided implementing the decision until 1963. In that year, four black children were killed by a bomb that destroyed part of their Birmingham church. Widespread outrage over the incident helped create the climate that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1965, Dr. King led a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest discrimination in voter registration. Congress responded with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which helped blacks get onto the voting rolls in Alabama. This led white politicians to moderate their views to attract black votes.
In 1965, Dr. King led a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest discrimination in voter registration. Congress responded with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which helped blacks get onto the voting rolls in Alabama. This led white politicians to moderate their views to attract black votes.