Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780823435685)

The struggle for voting rights was a pivotal event in the history of civil rights.

For the fiftieth anniversary of the march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Newbery Medalist Russell Freedman has written a riveting account of African-American struggles for the right to vote.

In the early 1960s, tensions in the segrated South intensified. Tired of reprisals for attempting to register to vote, Selma's black community began to protest. In January 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a voting rights march and was attacked by a segregationist. In February, the shooting of an unarmed demonstrator by an Alabama state trooper inspired a march from Selma to the state capital. The event got off to a horrific start on March 7 as law officers brutally attacked peaceful demonstrators. But when vivid footage and photographs of the violence was broadcast throughout the world, the incident attracted widespread outrage and spurred demonstrators to complete the march at any cost.

Illustrated with more than forty archival photographs, this is an essential chronicle of events every American should know.

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection

Author: Russell Freedman
ISBN-10: 0823435687
ISBN-13: 9780823435685
Publisher: Holiday House
Language: English
Published: 01/30/2016
Pages: 96
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 9.10h x 7.30w x 0.40d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.6
Point Value: 3
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 167606 / Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America