Diane Nash - Selma Campaign

Selma Campaign

Shocked by a church bombing in Birmingham which killed four young girls in September 1963, Nash and Bevel committed themselves to raising a non-violent army in Alabama. Their goal was the vote for every black adult in Alabama, a radical proposition at the time. After funerals for the girls in Birmingham, Nash confronted SCLC leadership with her proposal. She was rebuffed, but continued to advocate for this "revolutionary" non-violent blueprint.

This plan eventually culminated in the Selma Campaign, a series of marches for voting rights in Alabama in early 1965. Marchers repeatedly attempted to cross the Pettus Bridge, only to be attacked by Alabama troopers armed with clubs and tear gas. John Lewis, who had knelt to pray, had his skull fractured. The images went out over national television, shocking the nation. Soon after this, President Lyndon Johnson publicly announced that it was "wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country." The initiative culminated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which guaranteed the vote to citizens regardless of race.

President John F. Kennedy had appointed her to a national committee that prepared for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965, SCLC gave its highest award, the Rosa Parks Award, to Diane Nash and James Bevel for their leadership in the Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement.