Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail

Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail

Parks Directory of the United States / National Trails

(Trail Administrator - NPS Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail Office)
Address: 7001 US Hwy 80 W
Hayneville, AL 36040
Phone: 334-877-1983 - Phone;
Fax: 334-727-0856 - Fax;
Web: www.nps.gov/semo/
Established: November 12, 1996. Description: This historic trail includes city streets and US Highway 80 from Brown Memorial Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma to the State Capitol Building in Montgomery, traveled by voting rights advocates during March of 1965 to dramatize the need for voting rights legislation. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80, but were driven back at the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state and local lawmen using billy clubs and tear gas. Two days later, on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. After seeking and receiving court protection for a third, full-scale march, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery on March 21, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on March 25, they were 25,000 strong. Less than five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The route was also designated an "All-American Road," the highest tribute a road can receive under the Federal Highway Administration's National Scenic Byways Program.

---

See other parks in Alabama.