Selma Bloody Sunday

DISPERSE

Most foot soldiers fled across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge toward Selma and the safety of their homes and churches.

Police continued to assault marchers both on the bridge and in the streets. When a group of foot soldiers sought refuge at the First Baptist Church, armed police entered the sanctuary and violently attacked and forcibly removed the protestors. The violence continued for several hours. Meanwhile, that evening ABC News interrupted their broadcast of Judgment at Nuremberg to show clips of what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” The sight of armed police assaulting peaceful protestors helped expose the brutal tactics southern governments were willing to employ to oppose Black voting rights.

Tear gas continues to discharge from a canister thrown at marchers by the state troopers.
Mounted posse men pursued the fleeing marchers into a field behind the commercial businesses along US Highway 80.
Marchers regroup and take stock of their ranks.
After the intensity of the assault and tear gas, the marchers retrace their steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and toward their churches and homes in Selma.

AFTER THE TEAR GAS

The peaceful marchers retreated in several directions after being assaulted by law enforcement. Several marchers ran through parked cars and into nearby fields where they were pursued and regrouped. The Dallas County posse men followed all marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and back to Selma.

Screened By: NARA Date: 03-02-2015 DOCID: 70000876
Marchers are trailed by the mounted posse men across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
The posse men continue their assault and harassment of the marchers as the return to Selma.
Mounted posse men are shown riding their horses into George Washington Carver homes where many of the marchers returned.

MEDICAL COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Systemic racism across the American South had deprived most Black citizens of adequate access to medical care. Most Black communities lacked hospitals. Many lacked Black physicians and nurses. The Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) formed to help address these issues by sending health care professionals into the South to provide a broad range of services. 

Prior to the Bloody Sunday, members of the MCHR had been working in Mississippi where they faced violent attacks from white supremacists. On Bloody Sunday, the MCHR transformed their mobile health clinic into an ambulance used by Linda Dugan to render aid and evacuate the many wounded foot soldiers, including local civil rights leader Amelia Boynton, that had been assaulted by Alabama law enforcement.  

from, ”Selma is Now” by Doug McCraw and Tracy Morgan. University of Texas Press. 2025 →

Judgment at Nuremberg

This 1961 motion picture starring Spencer Tracy depicted the events of the 1947–1948 military tribunal held in Nuremberg, Germany,
to prosecute Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity. On the evening of March 7, 1965, American television audiences found it especially shocking that Alabama police had so cavalierly used violence to disrupt a nonviolent protest. The plight of European Jews victimized by the Nazi Holocaust resonated with the struggle Black Americans faced to secure civil equality.         

Impact of Television

On the evening of March 7, 1965, ABC news anchor Murphy Martin interrupted a broadcast of the film Judgment at Nuremburg to share with the nation the horrific images of Alabama law enforcement officers assaulting unarmed Black marchers in Selma. Civil rights leaders understood the power of television. The Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) communicated frequently with various media outlets in the days leading up to Bloody Sunday to ensure that their protests and the likely violent reaction from law enforcement would be captured and shared with people outside of Alabama. In addition to being a major turning point in helping Black citizens exercise their constitutional right to vote, Bloody Sunday also remains one of the most notable moments in American television history.