The Selma to Montgomery March occurred on March 21 to 25, 1965, and was led by Dr Martin Luther King. This march was the culmination of several weeks of activity, during which demonstrators had tried to march on two occasions. They were stopped on both occasions, once violently, by the police. Approximately 25,000 people joined the March and it became a landmark event in the Civil Rights Movement, leading directly to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The march brought public attention to the injustices faced by African Americans in voting.
In 1996, it was designated as a National Historic Trail in an act proposed by President Bill Clinton and passed by Congress, to be preserved by the National Park Service.
In March 2005, a re-enactment of the march took place to commemorate its 40th anniversary. This anniversary led to the creation of a pedestrian walk around Selma.
In 2015 the Marion to Selma Connecting Trail was designated to connect the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail with the site of Jimmie Lee Jackson's murder.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 directed the National Park Service to study potential additions to the trail and whether it should become a unit of the National Park System.
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