On March 21, 1965, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators began a historic march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol at Montgomery. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents were on hand to prevent violence. The marchers had twice had been turned back by Alabama state police at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. The marchers were campaigning for voting rights. In Selma, only 2 percent of eligible black voters had been permitted to register.
