Sunday in Selma

Last Sunday Selma, Alabama, Negroes began a 50-mile march to Montgomery to protest voter discrimination. The following report was compiled by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee directly from phone calls and field-radio reports made by SNCC staff members from various locations in Selma.

Brown's Chapel Church

W.E Scott:

2 p.m.--John Lewis, Chairman of SNCC, Robert Mants, SNCC staff, and Hosea Williams, SCLC staff, are leading the march. They are in the process of organizing into companies and squads, with company commanders and squad leaders.

Near the Bridge

Larry Fox:

2:45 p.m.--The people are at the bridge over the Alabama River; they have to walk double file. A group of state troopers, plus white people, plus Sheriff Clark and his posse, plus Al Lingo, head of the state highway patrol, are on the other side of the bridge.

A Street Corner

Lafayette Surney:

3 p.m.--About 2000-3000 people are marching. Mr. Turner of Marion [Alabama] is also leading. They are on the bridge now. If the police stop the people, they will wait until they are tear-gassed to leave.

3:06 p.m.--Two carloads of possemen just went to the bridge. The police are making local whites get indoors. SNCC's Annie Pearl Avery was just arrested--don't know what for. She just passed by in a police car. Two local white guys were also arrested. Three doctors and six or seven nurses from the Medical Committee for Human Rights, also three ambulances are there.

3:15 p.m.--State troopers are throwing tear gas on them. A few are running back. A few are being blinded by tear gas. Somebody got hurt--don't know who. They're beating them and throwing tear gas at them.

3:16 p.m.--Police are beating people on the streets. Oh, man, they're just picking them up and putting them in ambulances. People are getting hurt bad. There were two people on the ground in pretty bad shape. I'm going to leave in a few minutes. People are running back this way.

3:17 p.m.--Ambulances are going by with their sirens going. People are running, crying, telling what's happening.

3:18 p.m.--Police are pushing people into alleys--I don't know why. People are screaming, hollering. They're bringing on more ambulances. People are running, hollering, crying.

3:20 p.m.--People are running.

3:22 p.m.--Police got somebody else; it's hard to tell who. Looks like they're taking them to the hospital. Three more ambulances went by. The ambulances are picking them up off the ground. There goes another one. Two more. There go three of them.

3:23 p.m.--They're carrying people by.

3:25 p.m.--It looks bad. They're carrying people by, putting people in ambulances, private ambulances. People are running. Here come the white hoodlums. A lady said they tried to kill her. I'm on the corner of one of the main streets. People in the streets who were marching look like they're going back to the churches.

3:26 p.m.--They're going back to the church. I'm going too. Should be there in about five minutes.

Brown's Chapel Church

James Austen:

3:22 p.m.--State troopers are outside the church throwing rocks..

John Lewis:

3:33 p.m.--People marched, 1500-2000 of them, marched down Highway 80, across the bridge. At the other-side of the bridge were 200 state troopers, 200 possemen, about 1000 white people. The major of the state troopers made an announcement that they should turn around; the people refused. They knelt to the ground in a prayerful manner. Then the state troopers fired tear gas at them and began to beat them. I was hit in the head. People went back to the church. There are about 2000-3000 in the church. The posse is coming down to the church. People on horseback are beating people with whips and ropes. They are shooting tear gas, acid. I've never seen anything like it in my life. One very old lady I know has a broken arm.

Billy Bailey:

3:37 p.m.--I was across the bridge almost to the front of the line. A number of people were beat by state troopers. They started walking toward us. When they started walking toward us, we walked back. We kneeled and started to pray. Then they started throwing gas. Then we just started running back.

Willie Emma Ecott:

3:40 p.m.--We have a problem. The guys are not nonviolent any more. They're ready to fight. About two or three busloads of possemen are in front of the church beating people, throwing tear gas, beating children and adults. They have about 20 people on horseback. I don't know how many's been carried to the hospital. John Lewis has a small hole in his head. I tried to do something for it, but he wouldn't let me. They say Christopher Wylie is in pretty bad condition. Another lady has her arm broken in two or three places.

4:45 p.m.--They didn't only throw tear gas at the people, but also sprayed it on them so their clothes are full of it. The church is full of tear gas.

Good Samaritan Hospital

Lafayette Surney:

4:14 p.m.--People had their legs arms broke. Fractures of legs, arms. Tear gas--that's the baddest thing. The ambulance made several trips. They trampled over people with horses. The people at the church started throwing bricks at the state troopers.

Brown's Chapel Church

Larry Fox:

4:30 p.m.--The church is surrounded by possemen on horseback with tear gas. People are in the hospital. Doctors are next door to the church.

Wilson Brown:

4:34 p.m.--The church is surrounded by possemen, state troopers, and Jim Clark. They have Sylvan Street [the street the church is on] blocked off from one end to the other so people can't get in or out of the church. They are forcing people to go back into their homes, beating them with billy sticks.

Larry Fox:

5:15 p.m.--There is a rumor that if the people don't leave the church, it will be raided by state troopers. This came through a funeral home. Tear gas was shot into a house down the street by state troopers.

Good Samaritan Hospital

Worth Long:

5:20 p.m.--John Lewis is in the hospital with a possible skull fracture.

5:30 p.m.--State troopers and possemen have left.

Lafayette Surney:

6:05 p.m.--John Lewis is still in the emergency room and will have to stay over night. There is the possibility of a concussion. I just finished talking to Police Commissioner Baker. He said that state troopers took over and just took it out of their hands.

Brown's Chapel Church

Willie Emma Scott:

7:30 p.m.--People are gathering at the church for a mass meeting