Changing is a hard thing to do. Especially when the change is what no one wants. Especially when it’s what the whites don’t want. On March 21, 1965 the next step in making all people equal, a very important march began. Martin Luther King was the leading figure in the race to equality. He started non-violent marches and protests to change many laws. One of my favorite marches that he led was the march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. Martin and his group of friends went to Selma to awaken the spirit of the African Americans. During 1965 the Governor of Alabama was George Wallace. The man was very racist towards the African Americans. He would not let them vote, even when segregation had already ended. Martin wanted this changed and now. He started by having a service in one of the local churches where over 700 people attended.

By the time he finished he had managed to awaken the spirit of the small town in the heart of segregation. They started with a small group that went to the courthouse to get into it. Upon arriving to the courthouse the Sheriff for Dallas County, Jim Clark was waiting for them. They ask to enter and he says, “No. Y’all can go around to the back and wait.” Martin then says, respectfully, “No sir, we are going through the front.” Eventually Jim Clark gets mad and beats some of them with his billy club. This resulted in jail time for many of the peaceful protesters including Martin himself. It was very unfair, showing that in Alabama the desegregation laws were not followed at all.

Over the next few weeks President Johnson would be getting newspapers with the front picture being African Americans being beaten in the streets of Selma. Martin thought that a march needed to take place from Selma to Montgomery. He told his plans to the President but, he added that the march wouldn’t be necessary if he passed a bill to say that everyone can vote. Johnson then decided he had more important things to do than just the thing he needed to do and turned Martin down. Johnson then told him that he better not march at all. Martin was not going to let anything stop him from getting what he needed to do so, he planned the march anyways. Unfortunately when the first attempt of the march happened Martin was at home fixing problems with his wife.

When the first attempt happened the non-violent marchers met a large group of troopers, along with many white spectators, ready to brutally attack the marchers. The troopers gave them a warning, then shot into the crowd with tear gas and billy clubs wrapped in barbed wire. Again, the next morning after the unsuccessful first go at the march, President Johnson had the newspaper sitting on his desk with the front page being horrible pictures. President Johnson was starting to get mad and sent someone to Alabama to get George Wallace and Martin to give up or he would make them. Martin told the person sent by the president no and they would have their march to Montgomery. One of the people in Martin’s group then filed with the court to approve the march. Martin then made the journey back to the White House to talk to Johnson one last time. He tried to make him understand but, it was quite impossible. By then news stations were playing videos of the first attempt of the march, which were quite brutal and hard to watch. This awakened the spirit of many people across the nation. Surprisingly it wasn’t mostly Africans Americans. Many white people travelled across the country to take part in the second attempt of the march. Unfortunately the second attempt was also unsuccessful, because of a retreat by Martin. The troopers were off to the side of the road, making Martin think it was a trap.

Now George Wallace was really angry. Martin and the people of Selma went to court to get the march approved. Many people took the stand, telling the horrific tales of what the troopers put them through. By the end of the trial the judge had decided that the march would be approved, making the troopers power disappear. For the African Americans in Selma, this was a huge achievement. Preparations for the march started after the day of the trial. When George Wallace heard about this he was beyond mad. He went to the White House, where President Johnson was having his own trouble. Many protesters had taken up the art of sitting peacefully across the lawns of the White House chanting throughout the night. Johnson was upset because it was keeping up his Lady Bird at night. He told Wallace it was his problem but, Wallace wouldn’t budge. He told the President this was his problem. Johnson did not like the fact that Wallace couldn’t even solve his own problems, much less that it was in the state he was in charge of. Wallace wanted to end the protesting but, he still wouldn’t have let them vote. Johnson had other ideas though. He told Wallace he did not want to be known as a like of Wallace and since he was the President, he was going to solve this issue. Later President Johnson put a bill into order making anyone, no matter what race, eligible to vote in major and local elections. Then in a celebratory manner many blacks and whites made the long march from Selma to Montgomery writing history as they went.