This Day in History:, Selma to Montgomery March Begins.<br />March 21, 1965.<br />Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., between 3,000 and <br />8,000 marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge <br />out of Selma on their way to Montgomery.<br />Over the next five days, they were protected by thousands <br />of federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and soldiers. <br />Their numbers would swell to around 25,000.<br />At the state capitol, King would give his <br />famous "How Long, Not Long" speech.<br />The march came just days <br />after the passage of the civil <br />rights legislation known as <br />the Voting Rights Act.<br />The passage of the legislation followed two <br />unsuccessful attempts at the march which ended <br />in violence between police and the peaceful protestors.<br />President Lyndon Johnson cited the violence, <br />which had been broadcast on national television, <br />as a turning point in American history.<br />How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
