success, Southern America had reacted through a hard-line opposition. This was
exercised through organisations such as the White Citizens’ Council which came
to represent what King called the “Southern white power structure”, as well as
the Southern Manifesto which was signed by 101 politicians in 1956, outlining
arguments against racial integration.
Furthermore, the Sheriff of Selma, Jim Clark, was well-known for his intolerant
and aggressive policing tactics, much like Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor who led the
shocking police aggression against activists in Birmingham in 1963. In that case,
the media images of innocent African-American children being targeted by fire
hoses and police dogs had struck a chord with many American voters and had
encouraged much support for the Movement. King hoped that similar tactics
would also work in his favour with Jim Clark in Selma. Additionally, the Student
Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) had been losing funds on a voting
rights campaign which they had tested in Selma. Since the Civil Rights Act of
1964 had earned the Movement its greatest legislative victory for the issue of
segregation, many of the Movement’s leaders turned to voting rights as the next
greatest issue.
The situation in Selma in 1965 in terms of racial inequality was also staggering.
A white man living in Selma would earn on average four times that of his African-
American counterpart. Despite an African-American population making up 57%
of the total, only 335 out of more than 15,000 African-Americans were registered
to vote, and from them, a mere 23 had voted in the previous election as a result
of threats from the white community against African-American voting. The town
even had a separate newspaper for African-Americans.
So having arrived in Selma, what did King and the SCLC do to eventually change
the nature structure of American political participation forever? The first thing
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