The civil rights activism of the late 1950s and early 1960s sparked social, economic, and political changes throughout the country. The Supreme Court declared segregated schools, buses, and waiting rooms unconstitutional on a national scale. Lower court rulings and boycotts resulted in better pay for African Americans and the removal of "colored" signs in some cities. But change didn't happen overnight, and success was often hard-won.

Birmingham, Alabama, was among a handful of cities that refused to comply with Supreme Court rulings that banned discrimination, and actually fought to preserve the segregated way of life. In spite of progress elsewhere in the South, Birmingham remained one of the most segregated cities in the country. Signs everywhere marked racially segregated water fountains and restrooms. It was illegal for African Americans to use the city parks, or for blacks and whites to sit together in any public facility. Voter registration tests and scare tactics made it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for African Americans to vote. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization with a large presence in Birmingham, often enforced segregation with random acts of violence against African Americans. Local police offered no protection. In fact, police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor and his deputies were known for their brutality.

In the late 1950s, the Alabama Council on Human Relations (ACHR) formed to support racial equality. Made up mostly of white professionals, the ACHR did not participate in marches or demonstrations, but instead raised money, provided transportation and housing for visiting civil rights activists, and contributed other more indirect means of support.

By the mid-1960s, the racial tension in Birmingham drew national attention. News coverage showed police using fire hoses, police dogs, and tear gas against nonviolent demonstrators. A bomb destroyed the all-black 16^th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls. Resistance and violence continued even after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as African Americans struggled to secure the right to vote. Some members of the ACHR wanted to take a more active stand for civil rights by marching and participating in civil rights demonstrations, but not everyone agreed.

In 1965, a faction of the ACHR split off to form the Concerned White Citizens of Alabama (CWCA). Like many black civil rights activists, whites who supported civil rights were threatened and intimidated by those who opposed racial equality. The Klan burned crosses in their yards, their names were published in local papers, neighbors shunned them, and local merchants refused to do business with them. Still, the CWCA continued to promote civil rights, and voting rights in particular.

On Saturday, March 6, 1965, the Reverend Joseph Ellwanger, a white Lutheran minister, led the 72 CWCA members on a march in Selma, Alabama to the Dallas County courthouse to protest voting discrimination and the racial violence that dogged the black community. African Americans lined the streets as the marchers made their way to Selma. From the steps of the courthouse, Ellwanger read the statement of purpose. Nearby, segregationists sang "Dixie" so that he couldn't be heard, but Ellwanger and the CWCA responded by singing "America the Beautiful." Black bystanders sang "We Shall Overcome." The CWCA left soon after, narrowly avoiding a riot.

The CWCA march preceded a week of marching by other civil rights organizations to protest voting discrimination. Sunday, March 7 would be dubbed "Bloody Sunday" for the police brutality against demonstrators, but civil rights leaders reorganized the march, in spite of a federal court order banning the march and Governor George Wallace's resistance. While the CWCA did not march, civil rights activists from across the country participated.

By March 21, federal court justice Frank Johnson lifted the court order banning the march, and 4,000 demonstrators, including the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., embarked on a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery. An estimated 25,000 marchers -- black and white -- from all over the country arrived in Montgomery. After a successful day of demonstrations, a white volunteer from Detroit named Viola Liuzza was shot in the face and killed by the Klan for helping to drive black demonstrators back to Selma.

The demonstrations, marked by white support as well as white resistance, made national headlines and amplified the demand for voting rights legislation. On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, giving African Americans full access to the political process and elective office.