Jimmie Lee & James
Subtitle: two lives, two deaths, and the movement that changed America
By: Steve Fiffer & Adar Cohen
Contributors: Cohen, Adar
Edition: First Regan Arts hardcover edition.
Publisher: Regan Arts
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 302
ISBN-13: 9781941393482
Subjects: Politics and government; United States; Civil rights movements
Other titles: Jimmie Lee and James
Description: "Bloody Sunday"--March 7, 1965--was a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle. Days earlier, during the crackdown on another protest in nearby Marion, a state trooper, claiming self-defense, shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old unarmed deacon and civil rights protester. Jackson's subsequent death spurred local civil rights leaders to make the march to Montgomery; when that day also ended in violence, the call went out to activists across the nation to join in the next attempt. One of the many who came down was a minister from Boston named James Reeb. Shortly after his arrival, he was attacked in the street by racist vigilantes, eventually dying of his injuries. Lyndon Johnson evoked Reeb's memory when he brought his voting rights legislation to Congress, and the national outcry over the brutal killings ensured its passage.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.