Guide
6 Sites to Visit on the Selma to Montgomery March Route
On March 7th, 1965, 600 marchers led by future Congressman John Lewis and Hosea Williams, a director within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), met at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama. The marchers departed for a planned 54-mile journey to Montgomery on foot to advocate for equal voting rights for Black Americans. They made it to Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were stopped and brutally attacked by local law enforcement. The violence, filmed by news broadcasters, shocked the nation, and the event became known as “Bloody Sunday.” The march restarted a few weeks later, where after four days of travel, the crowd swelled to over 20,000 in Montgomery. The events swayed public opinion and motivated the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Today, visitors can follow the march route and learn about this crucial chapter in American history. Here are six key stops on the road from Selma to Montgomery.
-
Stay connected with us via email. Sign up today.
-
Photo By: Google Street View
George Washington Carver Neighborhood
The George Washington Carver Neighborhood, named after the pioneering African American scientist and inventor, was a segregated public housing development built after World War II. It is located next to Brown Chapel AME Church and hosted several members of the SCLC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and participants who came to Selma to participate in the march.
-
Photo By: Ron Cogswell/Wikimedia Commons
Brown Chapel AME Church
Built in 1908 by formerly enslaved Black builder A.J. Farley, Brown Chapel AME Church has served as a house of worship and a platform for civil rights activism for generations. The church is on the National Register of Historic places, a National Historic Landmark, and a site on the National Parks Service Selma to Montgomery Trail.
-
Photo By: Mike Norton/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
Edmund Pettus Bridge
Built in 1940 and named for a Confederate general and member of the Klu Klux Klan, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site where law enforcement officers stopped and attacked marchers preparing to travel to Montgomery.
-
Photo By: Phillip Howard
Selma to Montgomery March Camp Sites
After “Bloody Sunday,” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped organize the march that left Selma on March 21. Along the four-day and 54-mile journey, protesters stayed at several campsites where they were given supplies and shelter, or in some cases attacked by local residents. Several of these sites are identified with historic markers today. In 2021 two of the camp sites were listed on the National Trust's Annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
-
Photo By: Google Street View
Lowndes Interpretive Center
Located along the route between Selma and Montgomery, the Lowndes Interpretive Center is a National Parks Service site dedicated to the history of the marchers, some of whom lost their lives, and the history of Black Lowndes County residents who were forcibly displaced by white landowners during this time period.
-
Photo By: Carol M. Highsmith Archive
Alabama State Capitol Building
The final stop on the Selma to Montgomery march was the Alabama State Capitol Building in Montgomery, where Rev. King sought to bring the issue of equal voting rights straight to the governor. The city of Montgomery has several other historic sites and museums dedicated to other events in Civil Rights Movement history including Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.
Morgan Forde is the senior manager for editorial and content at the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. In her free time, she is earning a PhD in urban history and Black studies at Harvard University.