1965 Black protesters, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., march on Selma, Alabama, January-March 1965. Dr. King meets with President Johnson, February 9, 1965. Voting Rights Act is signed, August 6, 1965. Riots in Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, August 11-16, 1965. Beginning in January, Black protesters picket Columbia Street stores in Bogalusa, Louisiana, a Klan stronghold.
Militant desegregation continues.
In May, a large Klan rally is held in Bogalusa, Louisiana. On June 2, O'Neal Moore, a black Washington Parish Sheriff's deputy, is murdered by a white man who drove him by in a pickup truck near Bogalusa. In July, militant protests by the Voter League and the Deacons force Justice Department to enforce Civil Rights Act through suits against city officials and the Klan. The focus of black protest moves to the North. 1967 Black protesters, protected by National Guardsmen, march from Bogalusa to the state capitol at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.