[[link removed]]
BLOODY SUNDAY: RESTORED PHOTOS SHOW THE VIOLENCE THAT SHOCKED A
NATION
[[link removed]]
Briana Ellis-Gibbs
March 7, 2025
The Guardian
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ 'Spider' Martin's newly restored photos reveal firsthand the racist
violence on March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. _
'Spider' Martin's most iconic image, known as 'The Two Minute
Warning.', Photograph: Spider Martin
Sixty years ago, on 7 March 1965, civil rights leaders and nonviolent
activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery in a fight for
African Americans’ rights to vote. But as they crossed the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama
[[link removed]], they were met with
unfounded brutal violence from Alabama state troopers. This day is
commemorated as Bloody Sunday. Among the marchers was photojournalist
“Spider” Martin who worked for the Birmingham
News;_ _he_ _documented the violence firsthand, shocking the nation
with his revealing images of the reality of voter suppression.
Though the march occurred six decades ago, Doug McCraw, a native son
of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and producer of the exhibit Selma Is Now, on
display in Montgomery, Alabama, until 1 June, argues that the fight
for civil and voting rights continues today. McCraw writes in his
co-produced book, Selma Is Now: The March for Justice Continues,
“sacrifices made by the marchers in March 1965 paved the way for the
liberties we enjoy today, but the struggle for social justice
continues.”
[people beating people]
John Lewis on the ground, on the right, as he is attacked by a trooper
with a billy club that resulted in a concussion and skull fracture.
As a result of Donald Trump and his supporters spreading false claims
of voter fraud after losing the 2020 presidential race, many
Republican lawmakers implemented voting laws that disproportionately
affect African Americans’ ability to vote in the years to come.
The new voting laws included redrawing district lines giving Black
voters less power at the polls and reducing the number of ballot drop
boxes for mail-in ballots. Additionally, states such as Ohio and Idaho
imposed stricter ID requirements for in-person and mail-in voting.
These restrictions reflect the injustices that marchers risked their
lives to challenge.
Martin’s newly restored photos, on view at the exhibit Selma Is Now,
show his work as the only news photographer to capture the moments
that occurred on Bloody Sunday and the subsequent marches from Selma
to Montgomery. During the 1960s, the public primarily witnessed major
events like Bloody Sunday through images in newspapers and magazines.
Martin’s photographs were so influential that they sparked
nationwide protests, prompting President Lyndon B Johnson to order
2,000 national guard troops to escort the marchers from Selma to
Montgomery on 20 March 1965, to prevent another Bloody Sunday.
[a man wearing glasses ]
‘Spider’ Martin takes a photograph of Brown Chapel AME church in
the reflection of a reporter’s sunglasses. His caption, written in
1965, describes his time on assignment during the Selma marches.
Karen Graffeo, a photographer, professor of art at the University of
Montevallo, and director of photo restoration for Selma Is Now, points
to the importance of the photos today: “The photographs are
particularly alive considering recent challenges to human rights and
the rise of self-aggrandizing politicians in a warring world.”
The images provoked Andrea Young, daughter of the civil rights
activist Andrew Young – who marched across the bridge on Bloody
Sunday and later served as executive director of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, mayor of Atlanta, and US ambassador
to the United Nations – to recall being nine years old when her
parents brought her to the third and final march, 13 days after Bloody
Sunday.
[people walking ]
Exuberant marchers make their way with bags and suitcases in hand on
the first day of the 54-mile march to Montgomery.
[men with their hands interlocked ]
From left: arms linked, Bob Mants, John Lewis, the Rev Hosea Williams
and Andrew Young sing freedom songs with marchers outside Brown Chapel
AME church before beginning the march.
“My parents believed so much in America that they brought their
children,” Andrea notes. “See the hope emanating from the people
in these photographs. The adults knew how ugly America could be, and
they loved America enough to march in hope, to march in love, to march
forward, letting their light shine.”
Like Andrea’s parents, many African Americans faced
disenfranchisement in the years leading up to Bloody Sunday. Jim Crow
laws made it difficult for African Americans to vote; they faced poll
taxes, literacy tests and intimidation tactics that prevented Black
people from voting, despite the passage of the 15th amendment granting
them that right. Meanwhile, Black people were being lynched by the Ku
Klux Klan (KKK), and on 15 September 1963, the KKK bombed a Black
church in Birmingham, killing four young girls. By 7 March 1965, less
than 1% of Black people were eligible to vote in some counties in
Alabama.
John Lewis, who became a US congressman, is quoted in Selma Is Now:
The March for Justice Continues as saying in 2018 that Martin’s
photographs told the story of a people denied the right to participate
in democracy. His “images made it plain and clear that hundreds,
thousands, millions of people could not participate in the democratic
process simply because of the color of their skin”.
[a women lies on the ground]
Amelia Boynton lies unconscious after being beaten by a trooper.
[people yelling with signs ]
Counter-protesters awaiting the voting rights marchers’ arrival in
Montgomery demonstrate in front of the Capitol.
During the encounter with police, at least 58 people were injured,
including several who were hospitalized after being struck with clubs,
whips, cattle prods and teargas. Among those injured was Lewis, who
suffered a fractured skull from a police baton.
In spite of these injustices, an estimated 600 civil rights activists
set out to march from Selma to Montgomery to protest racial
discrimination in voting rights. Chevara Orrin, the daughter of James
Luther Bevel, asked Andrew Young what inspired him to keep marching.
“I once asked Ambassador Andrew Young if the civil rights
movement’s ‘foot soldiers’ ever experienced what we now call
‘Black fatigue’. He responded, ‘Child, we didn’t have the
luxury of fatigue. We had to press on.’”
[a person’s feet ]
A marcher’s blistered feet bear witness to the grueling nature of
the 54-mile route.
[a man looking at people marching ]
Under the watchful gazes of federalized Alabama national guard and US
military police units, the march makes its way through Lowndes county.
Martin’s images illustrate the fatigue and determination of all
those who marched. Dr Martin Luther King
[[link removed]] Jr noted the
powerful impact of his pictures, telling him, “Spider, we could have
marched, we could have protested forever, but if it weren’t for guys
like you, it would have been for nothing. The whole world saw your
pictures.” He credited Martin’s images with influencing the
passing of the Voting Rights Act signed by President Johnson exactly
five months after Bloody Sunday.
Tracy Martin, the daughter of Spider Martin and co-producer of the
book, Selma Is Now: The March for Justice Continues, recalls her
father’s courage, and the current importance of his work. “Daddy
faced beatings and death threats while capturing through his lens the
most iconic images of a movement that changed a region and a
nation,” she writes. “As his daughter, I have the privilege and
responsibility to continue disseminating his work around the country
as a reminder to us of just what was at stake in 1965.”
_Briana Ellis-Gibbs is a Guardian US fellow_
* selma to montgomery march
[[link removed]]
* racist violence
[[link removed]]
* photos
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
[[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]
Twitter [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]]
[link removed]
To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
