US Rep. John Lewis recalls the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge at a ceremony in Roxbury (Boston), MA on the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Background: Selma, Alabama, 1965 Of the 15000 African Americans in Selma, Alabama in 1965, less than 350 were registered to vote. Jim Clark, the sheriff, did not shy away from using violence to control African Americans in Selma. Knowing that Clarks response to civil rights protests would brutal, Martin Luther King helped organize a protest in Selma. After the shooting of a black teenager in the nearby town of Marion, members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference announced a march from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, a distance of some 50 miles. Once there, they would present a list of grievances to Governor George Wallace. The governor, however, immediately banned the march. Despite the ban, some 600 protesters gathered on Sunday, March 7, 1965, and began the march. When they reached the Edmund Pettis Bridge, the marchers found their way blocked by state troopers and citizen deputies led by Sheriff Clark. Violence quickly followed as the troopers and deputies used clubs and tear gas to drive the protesters back. Film crews captured the chaos and images of the Selma march appeared on television screens throughout the nation. President Johnson capitalized on the public outrage to advance a voting rights bill through Congress. Protected by court order and National Guardsmen, King and ...