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Rare Video Footage of Historic Alabama 1965 Civil Rights Marches, MLK's Famous Montgomery Speech

To see much more from the film, King: A Filmed Record, on Democracy Now!, visit http://owl.li/i1B3S. In a Black History Month special, Democracy Now! airs excerpts of the 1970 documentary, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, a rarely seen Oscar-nominated feature about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the rise of the civil rights movement. This clip shows scenes from the three historic marches from Selma to the capital Montgomery. The first took place March 7, 1965, and became known as Bloody Sunday after police attacked 600 marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march came the following Tuesday, attracting more than 2,500 protesters, who were forced to turn around by police after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We hear from Dr. King as he successfully crosses the bridge along with thousands of others on the third march, under the watch of federal troops mobilized by President Johnson. Finally, we will hear Dr. Kings address in the capital of Montgomery, where the march triumphantly ends.

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: We have the right to walk the highway. We have the right to walk to Montgomery if our feet can get us there. We must let the nation know and we must let the world know that it is necessary to protest this threefold evil: the problem of the denial of the right to vote to police brutality—that we continue to face and faced in its most vicious form last Sunday—and then the attempt to block First Amendment privileges.

REPORTER: How do you feel about the protection being given you on this march?

REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I think this is a real demonstration of the commitment of the federal government to protect the constitutional rights of Negro citizens. The protection has been a very thorough, as you can see. And the men are working under the guidance, and certainly under the power and influence, of the federal government to see that things are carried out in an orderly manner. So I think that everybody has to recognize that this symbolizes a new commitment

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