National Voting Rights Museum
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The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, established in 1991 and opened in 1993, is an American museum in
Selma, Alabama Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About ...
, which honors, chronicles, collects, archives, and displays the artifacts and testimony of the activists who participated in the events leading up to and including the 1965
Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
, and passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as well as those who worked for the African-American Voting Rights and
Women's Suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
movements. As the museum describes in its mission statement, it recognizes other people, events, and actions which furthered America's
Right to Vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
since "the Founding Fathers first planted the seeds of democracy in 1776." The museum was founded by
Faya Ora Rose Touré Faya Ora Rose Touré, born Rose M. Gaines, (born May 20, 1945) is an American civil rights activist and lawyer who was Alabama’s first black woman judge. Henry Sanders (politician), Henry Sanders is her husband. Personal life Touré was born on ...
and
Marie Foster Marie Priscilla Martin Foster (October 24, 1917 – September 6, 2003) was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1960s. Her successful voter registration in Dallas County, Alabama fueled her to become an activist, and sh ...
. It is located near the
Edmund Pettus Bridge The Edmund Pettus Bridge carries U.S. Route 80 Business (US 80 Bus.) across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named after Edmund Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and state-level ...
. On this bridge on March 7, 1965, voting rights marchers who left the city for a planned walk to Montgomery were beaten and clubbed by Dallas County posse and Alabama State Troopers, in what became known as "
Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...
". They had passed into the county on a planned walk of 54 miles to Montgomery, Alabama's state capital. This treatment was nationally televised and covered by major media, arousing national outrage. After gaining federal protection from President Lyndon B. Johnson and a federal court order protecting their right to march, thousands of people left Selma on March 21, reaching Montgomery several days later. By then, they had been joined by thousands more, black and white, and 25,000 marchers entered the state capital to press for protection of constitutional voting rights. Later that summer the Voting Rights Act of 1965, introduced by the Johnson administration, was passed by Congress and signed by the president.


Exhibits

The museum's several rooms and exhibit areas include the "Footprints to Freedom" room, which features molded cast-footprints of some of the activists who participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches; a "Women's Suffrage Room", honoring the contributions of African-American and other women who secured women's voting rights in the U.S.; the "Selma Room", also known as the "
Marie Foster Marie Priscilla Martin Foster (October 24, 1917 – September 6, 2003) was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1960s. Her successful voter registration in Dallas County, Alabama fueled her to become an activist, and sh ...
" room, where voting records, clothes worn by people beaten during the march, and other artifacts of these social movements are displayed; and a room where people who participated in the 1960s marches can leave personal messages and chronicle their memories. The museum also features a large blow-up of a portion of an iconic photograph taken on the Selma to Montgomery march by ''Look'' magazine photographer James Karales.


See also

* Dr. Martin Luther King's 1957 ''Give Us the Ballot'' speech *
Voting rights in the United States Voting rights in the United States, specifically the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, has been a moral and political issue throughout United States history. Eligibility to vote in the United States is governed by ...
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute *
Civil rights movement in popular culture The history of the 1954 to 1968 American civil rights movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, theater, television, and the visual arts. These presentations add to and maintain cultural awareness and understanding of the goals, tact ...
*
National Civil Rights Museum The National Civil Rights Museum is a complex of museums and historic buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; its exhibits trace the history of the civil rights movement in the United States from the 17th century to the present. The museum is built aro ...
*
Woman Suffrage Procession The Woman Suffrage Procession on 3 March 1913 was the first suffragist parade in Washington, D.C. It was also the first large, organized march on Washington for political purposes. The procession was organized by the suffragists Alice Paul and L ...
*
Declaration of Sentiments The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men—100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention to be organized by women. Held in Sen ...
*
Seneca Falls Convention The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman".Wellman, 2004, p. 189 Held in the Wesleyan Methodist Church ...
*
Women's suffrage in the United States In the 1700's to early 1800's New Jersey did allow Women the right to vote before the passing of the 19th Amendment, but in 1807 the state restricted the right to vote to "...tax-paying, white male citizens..." Women's legal right to vote w ...


References


External links


National Voting Rights Museum website

National Voting Rights Museum and Institute on Google Cultural Institute
Civil rights movement museums Museums in Dallas County, Alabama Museums established in 1991 African-American museums in Alabama History museums in Alabama Buildings and structures in Selma, Alabama 1991 establishments in Alabama Selma to Montgomery marches {{civil-rights-movement-stub