(Originally published by the Daily News on March 26, 1965. This story was written by Jack Mallon.)
Montgomery, Ala., March 25 – More than 30,000 civil righters, black and white, old and young, clergy and laymen, some crippled and blind, marched to the white-stoned Alabama Capitol today and their footstep were heard around the world.
But their petition to Gov. George Wallace – that Alabama [African-Americans] be given the right to vote and that “democracy be established” in the state – went unheard. The Governor, who earlier in the day had said he would meet with a group of 20 civil rights leaders when the marchers had dispersed, had left his office by the time the delegation entered the Capitol.
“Freedom – Loving People”
It was five days and 50 miles after Martin Luther King Jr. took the march out of the violence-torn city of Selma that they tried to petition the Governor. The petition said:
“We have come to represent the [African-American] citizens of Alabama and freedom-loving people from all over the United States and the world. We have come not only five days and 50 miles but we have come to you, the Governor of Alabama, to declare that we must have our freedom NOW.
“We are here because for over 100 years now our Constitutionally guaranteed rights to vote has been abridged. We call upon you to establish democracy in Alabama.”
At 6:25 P.M. 20 men, all from Alabama as Wallace had stipulated, two whites among them, left the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church, a block from the Capitol. They were led by Rev. J. E. Lowery of Montgomery.
As they approached the Capitol 65 state troopers raced to block off the front of the building, lining up in two rows.
The delegation stopped, held a conference in the street, and at 6:45 tried to enter the building. Lowery told Maj. Walter Allen that, according to their information, the Governor was willing to meet them. Allen refused to move.
“As far as I know,” he said, “the demonstration is still continuing.”
Then Directed Back
The group walked back toward the church, but Lt. J. A. Allen, saying he had orders from trooper chief Al Lingo, ran to direct them back into the Capitol.
“The Governor didn’t know they were there,” he explained on the way back. “They got there before we expected them.”
At 6:55 the group marched through an opening in the trooper ranks and into the building. They were met by Cecil Jackson of Selma, Wallace’s executive secretary, who told them the Governor was not there. They did not hand him the petition. As they turned to walk out, Jackson told them they could come back tomorrow.
Later, Wallace, in a press conference, called the days march “prostitution of lawful process.” He said it had cost $1 million – apparently a reference to money spent by the federal government to protect the marchers.
Wallace added: “I see that Ralph Bunche, the United Nations man, was here. He’s supposed to be defending us against Communists, but today he was consorting with known Communists.”
Calls Some Subversive
Wallace charged that the committee appointed to present the petition to him “included people who belong to organizations cited as subversive by the House Un-American Activities Committee.” He added that the delegation “includes known felons and some nonresidents.”
Saying that only a small percentage of the marchers were from Alabama, he congratulated the people of his state for the absence of incidents.
Earlier in the day the Capitol grounds were clogged with the thousands of demonstrators. March leaders stood on the same broad steps on which Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederacy on April 18, 1861. A plaque commemorating this event, set into the top step, was covered with plywood today.
State legislators, many of them obviously angered by the march, stood on the portico and watched.
“Useless, senseless,” said Sen. Robert Gilchrist of Morgan County.
Very little legislative work was done, partly due to the fact that all women employees were given the day off.
King mounted a platform and told the crowd:
“Our feet are tired, but our souls are rested. They told us we wouldn’t get here. We are here before the forces of the State of Alabama and telling them that we aren’t going to let anyone turn us back.
Chants and Clapping
“I stand before you with the conviction that segregation is on its deathbed, and the only question is how costly Gov. Wallace and the segregations will make the funeral.”
Early this morning thousands poured into the 18-acre campsite behind the City of St. Jude, a Catholic complex four miles from the Capitol, to trek the last leg of the historic march.
The chant of “Freedom, Freedom,” accompanied by rhythmic handclapping, vibrated across the muddy field.
When King arrived at 11 A.M. he was handed a summons and complaint by a Dallas County deputy sheriff “for maliciously conspiring to run transportation in competition with the Selma bus lines, which has a franchise.”
The city of Selma is suing King and other civil rights leaders and groups for $100,000 in an effort to recover money spent to police demonstrations there. And it joined with the bus lines in a $9,750 damage suit seeking to recover revenue lost because of [an African-American] boycott of the line. The city gets a percentage of the line’s income. Named were King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Dallas County Voting League.
At 11:10 A.M., under a light rain, the marchers pulled out of the camp singing:
Oh, Wallace, you can’t jail us all,
Oh Wallace, segregation is bound to fall.
More than 20,000 strong at this point, they pulled out into a dirt road running alongside the northern perimeter of the City of St. Jude.
Among the New Yorkers in the march were City Controller Abraham Beame; Madison Jones, executive director of the City Commission on Human Rights; Queens District Attorney Frank D. O’Connor and Council Majority Leader David Ross.
H. Alexander Aldrich, representing Gov. Rockefeller, and George Fowler, director of the State Committee Against Discrimination, marched all the way.
Dr. King Leads Them Out
Surrounded by a group of young marshals and preceded by a battery of newsmen, King led the demonstrators out. Mrs. Coretta King, his wife, and Dr. Ralph Bunche, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, flanked King.
Bayard Rustin, civil rights strategist; John Lewis, director of the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Ralph Abernathy, King’s assistant, shared the first line.
Carrying signs that read “I Have a Dream,” “God is Color-Blind,” and “We Shall Overcome,” they marched through Montgomery’s [African-American] ghetto, singing.
Matthew Kennedy, a disabled [African-American] veteran, sat on a concrete wall and wept as the demonstrators surged past.
“I never saw such a thing before,” he said. “It’s the most wonderful thing in the world.”
Kids Urged to Join
As they passed Loveless Grammar School on Jefferson Davis Ave., the marchers yelled to waving [African-American] youngsters, “Get out of that school. Join the march.”
Some [African-American] spectators looked on, some bewildered, some merely curious, as thousands of others joined the swelling ranks.
Along the way King removed his suit jacket and drank soda pop.
They sang:
Pick them up and lay them down
All the way from Selma town,
Right, right.
Let Wallace hear the sound,
Right, right.
Let the world hear the sound,
Right, right.
We are marching all the way,
Right, right.
Want our freedom right way,
Right, right.
