Selma was a trading center and market town during theantebellum years ofKing Cotton in the South. It was also an important armaments-manufacturing and iron shipbuilding center for theConfederacy, as well as providing a hospital converted from a Masonic university, during theCivil War, surrounded by miles of earthen fortifications. The Confederate forces were defeated during theBattle of Selma, in the final full month of the war.
In modern times, the city is best known for the 1960scivil rights movement and theSelma to Montgomery marches, beginning with "Bloody Sunday" in March 1965, when unarmed peaceful protesters were assaulted by County and state highway police.
By the end of March 1965, an estimated 25,000 people entered Montgomery to press for voting rights. This activism generated national attention for social justice. That summer, theVoting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress to authorize federal oversight and enforcement of constitutional rights of all American citizens.
Due to agriculture and industry decline, Selma has lost about a third of its peak population since the 1960s. The city is focusing on heritage tourism, to build on its role as a major influence in civil rights and desegregation.
Selma is one of Alabama's poorest cities, with an average income of $35,500, which is 30% less than the state average. One in every three residents in Selma lives below the statepoverty line.
Before discovery and settlement by Europeans, the area of present-day Selma had been inhabited for thousands of years by various warring tribes ofNative Americans. The Europeans encountered the historic Native American people known as theMuscogee (also known as the Creek), who had been in the area for hundreds of years.
French explorers and colonists were the first Europeans to explore this area. In 1732, they recorded the site of present-day Selma asÉcor Bienville. Later Anglo-Americans called it the Moore's Bluff settlement. Selma was incorporated in 1820. The city was planned and named as Selma byWilliam R. King, a politician and planter fromNorth Carolina who was a future vice president of the United States. The name, meaning 'high seat' or 'throne',[7] came from theOssianic poemThe Songs of Selma by Scottish poetJames Macpherson.[8]
During theCivil War, Selma was one of the South's main military manufacturing centers, producing many supplies and munitions, and building Confederate warships such as theironcladTennessee. The Selma iron works and foundry, where a youngWilliam Kehoe made bullets, was considered the second-most important source of weaponry for the South, after theTredegar Iron Works inRichmond, Virginia. Half the cannon and two thirds of the fixed ammunition used by the Confederacy in the last two years of the war were made there.[9] This strategic concentration of manufacturing capabilities eventually made Selma a target of Union raids into Alabama late in theCivil War.[10]
Because of its military importance, Selma had been fortified by three miles of earthworks that ran in a semicircle around the city. They were anchored on the north and south by theAlabama River. The works had been built two years earlier,[clarification needed] and while neglected for the most part since, were still formidable. They were 8 to 12 feet (2.4 to 3.7 m) high, 15 feet (4.6 m) thick at the base, with a ditch 4 feet (1.2 m) wide and 5 feet (1.5 m) deep along the front. In front of this was a 5 feet (1.5 m)-high picket fence of heavy posts planted in the ground and sharpened at the top. At prominent positions, earthen forts were built with artillery in position to cover the ground over which an assault would have to be made.
Ruins of the Confederate States Naval Foundry at Selma in 1865
The North had learned of the importance of Selma to the Confederate military, and the US military planned to take the city. Gen.William Tecumseh Sherman first made an effort to reach it, but after advancing from the west as far asMeridian, Mississippi, within 107 miles (172 km) of Selma, his forces retreated back to the Mississippi River.[clarification needed] Gen.Benjamin Grierson, invading with a cavalry force fromMemphis, Tennessee, was intercepted and returned.[clarification needed] Gen. Rousseau made a dash in the direction of Selma, but was misled by his guides and struck the railroad forty miles east ofMontgomery.[clarification needed][11]
On March 30, 1865, Union GeneralJames H. Wilson detached Gen.John T. Croxton's brigade to destroy all Confederate property atTuscaloosa. Wilson's forces captured a Confederate courier, who was found to be carrying dispatches fromConfederate GeneralNathan Bedford Forrest describing his scattered forces. Wilson sent a brigade to destroy the bridge across theCahaba River at Centreville, which cut off most of Forrest's reinforcements from reaching the area. He began a running fight with Forrest's forces that did not end until after the fall of Selma.
On the afternoon of April 1, opening what would be the final full month of the war, and afterskirmishing all morning, Wilson's advanced guard ran into Forrest's line of battle at Ebenezer Church, where the Randolph Road intersected the main Selma road. Forrest had hoped to bring his entire force to bear on Wilson. Delays caused by flooding, plus earlier contact with the enemy, resulted in Forrest's mustering fewer than 2,000 men, many of whom were not war veterans but home militia consisting of old men and young boys.
The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates fought for more than an hour as reinforcements of Union cavalry and artillery were deployed. Forrest was wounded by a saber-wielding Union captain, whom he shot and killed with his revolver. Finally, a Union cavalry charge broke the Confederate militia, causing Forrest to be flanked on his right. He was forced to retreat.
Early the next morning, Forrest reached Selma; he advised Gen.Richard Taylor, departmental commander, to leave the city. Taylor did so after giving Forrest command of the defense. Selma was protected by fortifications that circled much of the city; it was protected on the north and south by theAlabama River. The wall was high and deep, surrounded by a ditch and picket fence. Earthen forts were built to cover the grounds with artillery fire.
Forrest's defenders consisted of his Tennessee escort company,McCullough's Missouri Regiment, Crossland's Kentucky Brigade, Roddey's Alabama Brigade,Frank Armstrong's Mississippi Brigade, GeneralDaniel W. Adams' state reserves, and the citizens of Selma who were "volunteered" to man the works. Altogether this force numbered less than 4,000. As the Selma fortifications were built to be defended by 20,000 men, Forrest's soldiers had to stand 10 to 12 feet (3.7 m) apart to try to cover the works.
Wilson's force arrived in front of the Selma fortifications at 2 pm. He had placed Gen. Eli Long's Division across the Summerfield Road with the Chicago Board of Trade Battery in support. Gen.Emory Upton's Division was placed across the Range Line Road with Battery I, 4th US Artillery in support. Altogether Wilson had 9,000 troops available for the assault.
The Federal commander's plan was for Upton to send in a 300-man detachment after dark to cross the swamp on the Confederate right; enter the works, and begin a flanking movement toward the center moving along the line of fortifications. A single gun from Upton's artillery would signal the attack to be undertaken by the entire Federal Corps.
At 5 pm, however, Gen.Eli Long's ammunition train in the rear was attacked by advance elements of Forrest's scattered forces approaching Selma. Both Long and Upton had positioned significant numbers of troops in their rear for just such an event. But, Long decided to begin his assault against the Selma fortifications to neutralize the enemy attack in his rear.
Long's troops attacked in a single rank in three main lines, dismounted and shooting their Spencer's carbines, supported by their own artillery fire. The Confederates replied with heavy small arms and artillery fire. The Southern artillery had only solid shot on hand, while a short distance away was an arsenal which produced tons of canister, a highly effective anti-personnel ammunition.
The Federals suffered many casualties (including General Long) but continued their attack. Once the Union Army reached the works, there was vicious hand-to-hand fighting. Many soldiers were struck down with clubbed muskets, but they kept pouring into the works with their greater numbers. In less than 30 minutes, Long's men had captured the works protecting the Summerfield Road.
Meanwhile, General Upton, observing Long's success, ordered his division forward. They succeeded in overmounting the defenses and soon U.S. flags could be seen waving over the works from Range Line Road to Summerfield Road.
After the outer works fell, General Wilson led the4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in a mounted charge down the Range Line Road toward the unfinished inner line of works. The retreating Confederate forces, upon reaching the inner works, united and fired repeatedly together into the charging column. This broke up the charge and sent General Wilson sprawling to the ground when his favorite horse was wounded. He quickly remounted his stricken horse and ordered a dismounted assault by several regiments.
Mixed units of Confederate troops had also occupied the Selma railroad depot and the adjoining banks of the railroad bed to make a stand next to the Plantersville Road (present day Broad Street). The fighting there was heavy, but by 7 p.m. the superior numbers of Union troops had managed to flank the Southern positions. The Confederates abandoned the depot as well as the inner line of works.
In the darkness, the Federals rounded up hundreds of prisoners, but hundreds more escaped down the Burnsville Road, including generals Forrest, Armstrong, and Roddey. To the west, many Confederate soldiers fought the pursuing Union Army all the way down to the eastern side of Valley Creek. They escaped in the darkness by swimming across the Alabama River near the mouth of Valley Creek (where the present day Battle of Selma Reenactment is held.)
The Union troops looted the city that night and burned many businesses and private residences. They spent the next week destroying the arsenal and naval foundry. They left Selma heading to Montgomery. When the war ended three weeks later, they were en route toColumbus andMacon, Georgia.
Selma became the seat of Dallas County in 1866 and the county courthouse was built there.[10] Planters and other slaveholders struggled with how to deal with freed slaves after the war. Insurgents tried to keepwhite supremacy over thefreedmen, and most whites resented former slaves being granted the right to vote. As in other southern states, white Democrats regained political power in the mid-1870s after suppressing black voting through violence and fraud;Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 when federal troops were withdrawn. The white Democratic state legislature imposedJim Crow laws ofracial segregation in public facilities and other means of white supremacy.
The city developed its own police force. County law enforcement was run by an elected county sheriff, whose jurisdiction included the grounds of the county courthouse. The county courthouse and jail were scenes of numerouslynchings of African-Americans, as sometimes mobs would take prisoners from the jail and hang them before trial. In February 1892, Willy Webb was put in the jail in Selma after police arrested him in Waynesville. The police intended to save Webb from a local lynch mob, but the mob abducted Webb from the jail and killed him. In June 1893, a lynch mob numbering 100 men seized "a black man named Daniel Edwards from the Selma jail, hanged him from a tree, and fired multiple rounds into his body" for allegedly becoming intimate with a white woman. In the 20th century, African-Americans were also lynched for labor-organizing activities. In 1935, Joe Spinner Johnson, a leader of theAlabama Sharecroppers Union, which worked from 1931 to 1936 to get better pay and treatment from white planters, was beaten by a mob near his field, taken to the jail in Selma and beaten more; his body was left in a field nearGreensboro.[12]
In 1901, the state legislature passed a new constitution with electoral provisions, such aspoll taxes andliteracy tests, that effectivelydisenfranchised most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites, leaving them without representation in government, and deprived them of participation in juries and other forms of citizenship. Selma, Dallas County and other jurisdictions carried out the segregation laws passed by the state.
Especially in the post-World War II period, legal challenges by theNAACP against Southern discriminatory laws enabled blacks to more freely exercise their constitutional rights as citizens.
Selma maintained segregated schools and other facilities, enforcing the state law in new enterprises such as movie theaters. The Jim Crow laws and customs were enforced with violence.
Segregated drinking fountain, 1938
In the 1960s, black people who pushed the boundaries, attempting to eat at "white-only" lunch counters or sit in the downstairs "white" section of movie theaters, were still beaten and arrested. Nearly half of Selma's residents were black, but because of the restrictive electoral laws and practices in place since the turn of the century, only one percent were registered to vote, preventing them from serving on juries or serving in local office.[13] All the members of the city council were elected byat-large voting. Black people were prevented from registering to vote by means of aliteracy test, administered in a subjective way, as well as through economic retaliation organized by theWhite Citizens' Council in response to civil rights activism,Ku Klux Klan violence and police repression. After the Supreme Court caseSmith v. Allwright (1944) ended the use ofwhite primaries by the Democratic Party, the Alabama state legislature passed a law giving voting registrars more authority to challenge prospective voters under the literacy test. In Selma, the county registration board opened doors for registration only two days a month, arrived late and took long lunches.[14]
Against fierce opposition from Dallas County SheriffJim Clark and his volunteer posse, black people continued their voter registration and desegregation efforts, which expanded during 1963 and the first part of 1964. Defying intimidation, economic retaliation, arrests, firings and beatings, an ever-increasing number of Dallas County blacks tried to register to vote, but few were able to do so under the subjective system administered by whites.[17]
In the summer of 1964, a sweeping injunction issued by local judge James Hare barred any gathering of three or more people under sponsorship of SNCC, SCLC or DCVL, or with the involvement of 41 named civil rights leaders. This injunction temporarily halted civil-rights activity until Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. defied it by speaking to a crowd about the struggle atBrown Chapel AME Church on January 2, 1965. He had been invited by local leaders to help their movement.[18]
Beginning in January 1965, SCLC and SNCC initiated a revived voting-rights campaign designed to focus national attention on the systematic denial of black voting rights in Alabama, and particularly in Selma. Over the next weeks, more than 3,000 African-Americans were arrested, and they suffered police violence and economic retaliation.Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was unarmed, was killed in a café in nearby Marion after state police broke up a peaceful protest in the town.
Edmund Pettus Bridge, heading out of downtown Selma, across the Alabama River, towards Montgomery. Pettus was a Confederatebrigadier general, and laterGrand Dragon of the AlabamaKu Klux Klan.The Edmund Pettus Bridge, looking back towards Selma. Sheriff's deputies await the marchers on "Bloody Sunday"."Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965. State troopers[19] attack marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Activists planned a larger, more public march fromSelma to the state capital of Montgomery to publicize their cause. It was initiated and organized byJames Bevel, SCLC's Director of Direct Action, who was directing SCLC's Selma Movement. This march represented one of the political and emotional peaks of the modern civil-rights movement. On March 7, 1965, approximately 600 civil rights marchers departed Selma onU.S. Highway 80, heading east to the capital. After they passed over the crest of theEdmund Pettus Bridge and left the boundaries of the city, they were confronted by county sheriff's deputies and state troopers, who attacked them usingtear gas, horses andbilly clubs, and drove them back across the bridge. GovernorGeorge Wallace had vowed that the march would not be permitted. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized and 50 more were treated for lesser injuries. Because of the brutal attacks, this became known as"Bloody Sunday". It was covered by national press and television news, reaching many American and international homes.[20]
Two days after the first march, on March 9, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. led a symbolic march over the bridge. By then local activists and residents had been joined by hundreds of protesters from across the country, including numerous clergy and nuns. White people made up one-third of the marchers. King pulled the marchers back from entering the county and having another confrontation with county and state forces. But that night, white ministerJames Reeb, who had traveled to the city from Boston, was attacked and killed in Selma by members of the KKK.
King and other civil-rights leaders filed for court protection for a third, larger-scale march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. King was also in touch with the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who arranged for protection for another march.Frank Minis Johnson, Jr., the federal district court judge for the area who reviewed the injunction, decided in favor of the demonstrators, saying:
The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups ... and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways.
On Sunday, March 21, 1965, approximately 3,200 marchers departed for Montgomery. Marching in the front row with King were Rev.Ralph Abernathy, RabbiAbraham Joshua Heschel, Greek Orthodox Father Iakovos (laterArchbishop Iakovos of America) and Roman Catholic nuns. They walked approximately 12 miles a day and slept in nearby fields. The federal government provided protection in the form ofNational Guard and military troops. Thousands joined the march along the way. By the time the marchers reached the capital four days later, on March 25, their strength had swelled to around 25,000 people. Their moral campaign had attracted thousands from across the country.[21]
The events at Selma helped increase public support for the cause; later that year the U.S. Congress passed theVoting Rights Act of 1965, a bill introduced, supported and signed by PresidentLyndon B. Johnson. It provided for federal oversight and enforcement of voting rights for all citizens in state or jurisdictions where patterns of underrepresentation showed discrimination against certain populations such as ethnic minorities.
By March 1966, a year after the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, nearly 11,000 black people had registered to vote in Selma, where 12,000 white people were registered. Registration increased by November, when Wilson Baker was elected as Dallas County Sheriff to replace the notoriousJim Clark.
However, seven years later, black people had not been able to elect a candidate of their choice to the city council. The council's members were elected at-large by the entire city, and the white majority had managed to control the elections. Threatened with a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, the council voted to adopt a system of electing its ten members from single-member districts. After the change, five African-American Democrats were elected to the city council, including activistFrederick Douglas Reese, who became a major power in the city; five white people were also elected to the council.[22]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 14.403 square miles (37.30 km2), of which 13.809 square miles (35.77 km2) is land and 0.594 square miles (1.54 km2), is water.[2]
As of the 2023American Community Survey, there are 7,796 estimated households in Selma with an average of 2.19 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $32,184. Approximately 28.3% of the city's population lives at or below thepoverty line. Selma has an estimated 52.0% employment rate, with 19.0% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 88.3% holding a high school diploma.
The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (97.2%), Spanish (0.4%), Indo-European (0.7%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.3%), and Other (1.5%).
Selma, Alabama – racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of the2020 census, there were 17,971 people, 7,568 households, and 4,574 families residing in the city.[31] The population density was 1,301.4 inhabitants per square mile (502.5/km2). There were 8,946 housing units at an average density of 647.8 per square mile (250.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 14.43%White, 82.39%African American, 0.17%Native American, 0.60%Asian, 0.04%Pacific Islander, 0.25% from some other races and 2.13% from two or more races.Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.75% of the population.[32]
As of the2010 census, there were 20,872 people, 8,086 households, and _ families residing in the city. The population density was 1,503.1 inhabitants per square mile (580.4/km2). There were 9,429 housing units at an average density of 682.8 per square mile (263.6/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 17.92%White, 79.87%African American, 0.16%Native American, 0.58%Asian, 0.02%Pacific Islander, 0.12% from some other races and 0.75% from two or more races.Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.60% of the population.
As of the2000 census, there were 20,512 people, 8,196 households, and 5,343 families besiding in the city. The population density was 1,479.6 inhabitants per square mile (571.3/km2). There were 9,264 housing units at an average density of 668.3 per square mile (258.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 28.77%White, 70.68%African American, 0.10%Native American, 0.56%Asian, 0.01%Pacific Islander, 0.22% from some other races and 0.66% from two or more races.Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.67% of the population.
There were 8,196 households, out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them; 34.2% were married couples living together, 27.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.8% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.10.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.3% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 78.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $21,261, and the median income for a family was $28,345. Males had a median income of $29,769 versus $18,129 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,369. About 26.9% of families and 31.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.8% of those under age 18 and 28.0% of those age 65 or over.
The city and rural region have struggled economically, as agriculture does not provide enough jobs. There was a downturn after restructuring in industry that had done well into the 1960s.
Civil rights tourism has become a new source of business.[33]: 146
Selma boasts the state's largest contiguoushistoric district, with more than 1,250 structures identified as contributing. Area attractions include the Old Town Historic District, Old Live Oak Cemetery, Paul M. Grist State Park, andOld Cahawba Archaeological Park.
Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River
The complex history is reflected in naming and monuments as well. Highway 80, which runs east and west through Selma and the state has reflected this in naming patterns. In 1920 the east-west Highway 80 was designated as part of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway. In 1977 US 80 was named Givhan Parkway in honor of the long-serving state senatorWalter C. Givhan, a segregationist to the end. In 1996 it was designated as part of the 'National Civil Rights Trail' by President Bill Clinton and is administered by the National Park Service. In 2000 sections of Highway 80 leading into Selma were renamed in honor of leaders in the Selma Voting Rights Movement:F.D. Reese,Marie Foster, andAmelia Boynton.[34]
As part of its Civil War history, a monument to nativeNathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General, was installed in Old Live Oak Cemetery.[35] It was torn down in 2012, reflecting the continuing controversy about him. In August 2012, plans were announced to build a larger monument, more resistant to vandalism, but many African Americans object to it because of his established history as a postwar leader with the KKK and his earlier involvement in the massacre of black Union troops atFort Pillow.[34][36][37]
The Selma-Dallas County Public Library serves the city and the region with a collection of 76,751 volumes. It was established as aCarnegie library in 1904, receiving matching funds for construction. The 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) library is in downtown Selma.[38]
Downtown Selma facades.Facades along Main Street in Selma.
The city government of Selma consists of a mayor and a nine-membercity council, elected fromsingle-member districts. The Newly Elected mayor isJohnny E. Moss The city council members are: Kennard Randolph, City Council President; Troy Harvill, Ward 1; Christie Thomas, Ward 2; Clay Carmichael, Ward 3; Lesia James, Ward 4; Nadine Sturdivant, Ward 5; Ashley Ervin, Ward 6; Jannie Thomas, Ward 7; Michael Johnson, Ward 8.
Craig Field (SEM), located four nautical miles (4.6 mi; 7.4 km) southeast of the central business district of Selma. It is a Class D airport, with a non-federal contract control tower staffed by students and staff of Advanced ATC.
Selma City Schools operates the city's public schools. The publichigh school isSelma High School. Middle schools include R.B. Hudson Middle School and the School of Discovery. The city has eight elementary schools.
Selma, a 2014 award-winning film, features a filmed-on-location reenactment of the events surrounding the 1965Selma to Montgomery marches on "Bloody Sunday".
Blue Sky was filmed atCraig Field, the former Air Force base located at the edge of the city. The 1994 film employed many of the people of Selma as extras, including local high school marching bands.
^Daniel Fate Brooks (2003)."The Faces of William R. King"(PDF).Alabama Heritage.69 (Summer). University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama Department of Archives and History:14–23. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on June 21, 2006. RetrievedJune 17, 2011.
^"Station: Selma, AL".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. RetrievedJune 7, 2021.
Forner, Karlyn (2017).Why the vote wasn't enough for Selma. Duke University Press.ISBN9780822370000.Forner illustrates how voting rights failed to offset decades of systematic disfranchisement and unequal investment in African American communities. ... At the end of the twentieth century, Selma's celebrated political legacy looked worlds apart from the dismal economic realities of the region. Forner demonstrates that voting rights are only part of the story in the black freedom struggle and that economic justice is central to achieving full citizenship.
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