March: Books 2 & 3

Book Three begins with the events immediately prior to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which ended Book Two. During the church’s annual “Youth Day,” a bomb exploded, killing four young girls and injuring 21 others. The immediate aftermath saw more violence in Birmingham, including a young Black boy shot in the back by a police officer who never faced charges. At the funeral for the bombing victims, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a stirring eulogy calling out the system that produces such terrible violence. Diane Nash wanted a mass effort to paralyze the city government in Montgomery until Governor George Wallace stepped down and all Alabamians received the right to vote. Dr. King instead called for a rededicated effort to register voters in Alabama’s “Black Belt,” especially in the city of Selma. The county sheriff in Selma cracked down on protesters with the help of a posse armed with guns and cattle prods. The city had all kinds of mechanisms for preventing Black people from registering to vote, so the SNCC planned a series of demonstrations in front of the Selma courthouse. The police broke up all such demonstrations as “unlawful assemblies,” and on the few days that people could gather legally to vote, they were left to languish outside the courthouse for hours with no food, water, or bathroom access.