This was the end of a series of demonstrations calling on segregationist Gov. George Wallace and other state authorities to allow people of color to register to vote. In this speech, King shared his belief that the racist power structure that maintained the Jim Crow era was coming to an end. He said, “evil is choking to death in the dusty roads and streets of this state. So I stand before you this afternoon with the conviction that segregation is on its deathbed in Alabama, and the only thing uncertain about it is how costly the segregationists and Wallace will make the funeral.”
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to the Civil Rights marchers that completed their walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The multi-day demonstration called for equal voting rights for people of color.
Image source: Alabama Daily News
On this day in 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr spoke to the Civil Rights marchers who had just reached the city of Montgomery, the capital of Alabama.
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