Devoir sur the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama on Edmund Pettus Bridge

 1° The following document is a text written by The White House. This text contains some quotes of the speech of the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama. His speech was about the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama on Edmund Pettus Bridge. The speech was given on March 7th, 2015, and the document is quoting Barack Obama for the following sentence “For we were born of change”. The text is from The White House website.

2° The segregation was still strong in the USA during the 60’s. What happened in Alabama in 1965 is directly linked to the past history of the USA. In 1870 the 15th amendment of the Constitution is supposed to guaranty to the African-American population the legitimate right to vote.                                                                                                                                                                                                      But meanwhile the racism and the oppression stays strong in America. This is why they will have to wait until 1965 for a new law to be voted which guaranties to the African-American population that they can have full democratic rights.                                                                                                                                               In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr organized three political marches of protestation, which happened on March 7th, 9th and 21th from Selma to Montgomery, by the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Alabama. The march that he was leading was the culminating event of a political movement about African-American’s civils rights started in Selma, Alabama, by Amelia Robinson and her husband Samuel W. Boynton. During these events, the demonstrators were violently stopped by the police and also attacked by the Ku Klux Klan.                                                                                                                          There was three Selma to Montgomery Marches: the first one happened on March 7th and was called “Bloody Sunday” because many people were injured and several died when they were marching on Edmund Pettus Bridge. The local police and the crowd assaulted them.                                                                                                                                    The second march was on March 9th, Martin Luther King was here this time but the march was qualified of “turnaround Tuesday” because many demonstrators went back when they arrived on the bridge. This day, the Ku Klux Klan attacked three white pastors who came to support Martin Luther King.                                                                                                                                     Then the third and last march happened on March 21th. This time the crowd arrived with success to Montgomery on March 25th, they were 25 000 in the city at this time. Martin Luther King made his speech “how long, not long”, then a few months later the president Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act which gives the voting right without any restrictions.

3° The American Revolution is a time of political changes which are not appreciated by the colons who lives in America. For instance the United Kingdom, who held under control the land, imposed taxes to the 13 colonies without asking their consent. The colons started a rebellion which the UK tried to hold back without any success because the revolution has already started. The revolution began and started the war of independence against the UK from 1775 to 1783. George Washington, who led the revolution and the insurgents, received help from many Europeans volunteers such as Poland, France, Germany, and Spain… All this events led to the creation of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776. It states that the 13 colonies of America became the 13 states and are now forming the United States of America.                                                                                                                                                                So the disruption caused the independence of the country and encouraged the people to speak up for their rights, it made America a free country where people have rights and freedom. People were inspired by the revolution and it caused a great disruption because people weren’t afraid to stand up for their lives anymore like the text says: “The American instinct that led these young men and women to pick up the torch and cross this bridge, that’s the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny”. This quote tells us that the American Revolution engaged the people more into the political life because they want better rights and living conditions.                                                                                               But unfortunately the slaves weren’t concerned by it at all because at this time, they didn’t have any rights and their owner didn’t want to lose their power and privileges.                                            So the American Revolution caused a powerful feeling of belonging to a nation, but also a huge change because the country is now independent but also it didn’t change the situation of the slaves because they were still exploited and didn’t have any rights.

...