"Bloody Sunday"

On March 7, 1965, John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Bob Mants, and Albert Turner led some 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama toward Montgomery. As they descended the bridge and approached the county line, the marchers were attacked by state troopers and possemen with billy clubs, tear gas, and homemade weapons. Hundreds were injured, including Lewis, whose skull was fractured, and Amelia Boynton, who was found unconscious by medical workers. This initial march came to be known as Bloody Sunday for the cruelty displayed by the troopers and possemen.

Click below for the complete folder of images from the John Doar Papers.

Selma to Montgomery March: Photographs