Frequently Asked Questions

1) Where is the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail?

The trail is located on U.S. Highway 80 and extends 54 miles
from Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, Alabama through
Lowndes County to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery,
Alabama.

2) What is the significance of the Trail?

The Trail commemorates the events, people and route of
the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama.

3) What is the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

This Act outlawed the requirement that would-be voters in
the United States take literacy tests to qualify to register to
vote, and provided for federal registration of voters--instead
of state or local voter registration. The Act also provided
for Department of Justice oversight to voter registration.

4) What is meant by "Bloody Sunday"?

"Bloody Sunday" refers to the day Alabama state troopers
and local whites attacked the non-violent marchers, as they
neared the Selmont area of U.S. Highway 80 and Kings
Bend Road, leaving many of them bloodied and severely
injured.

5) What is "Tent City"?

"Tent City" refers to a temporary dwelling used by
approximately twenty African-American tenant farmers
in Lowndes County, who tried to use their new right to vote
and were evicted from their land by White landowners.
Some of the families lived on this land, which was owned
by African-Americans, in tents for as long as two years.