The three
Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 were part of the Voting Rights Movement underway in
Selma, Alabama. By highlighting racial injustice in the South, they contributed to passage that year of the
Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the
1960s American Civil Rights Movement. Activists publicized the three
protest marches to walk the 54-mile (87 km) highway from
Selma to the Alabama state capital of
Montgomery as showing the desire of
African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression.