Alabama State Capitol - Where the March Ended

A stop on Montgomery: Legacy and Civil Rights Road, a free self-guided tour.

You have reached the head of Dexter Avenue and the white dome of the Alabama State Capitol. On March 25, 1965, about 25,000 people came up this avenue at the end of a 54-mile march from Selma, demanding the right to vote. At its core were Black Alabamians from Selma and the surrounding counties, who had been turned back at the Edmund Pettus Bridge that March and kept on coming.

Troopers blocked the entrance, and Governor George Wallace did not come out to meet them. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the crowd here, and the marchers waited until a member of the governor's staff took their petition. On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

The building holds an older story too. In 1861 it served as the first capitol of the Confederacy, and a brass star at the top of the steps marks where Jefferson Davis took his oath. Stand here and look back down the avenue, past Dexter's steeple to Court Square, and you can see both histories at once.

Getting here: Walk east along Montgomery Street to Court Square, then up Dexter Avenue, the route the 1965 marchers took, about 15 minutes to the Capitol steps.

Did you know?: The brass star on the Capitol portico gives the date of Davis's inauguration as February 16, 1861, though most records put it on February 18.

Photo op: From the sidewalk at the foot of the Capitol grounds, frame the dome and the long steps, the view the marchers had as they arrived.

More on Wikipedia: Alabama State Capitol · Selma to Montgomery marches · Voting Rights Act of 1965 · Martin Luther King Jr.

Alabama State Capitol - Where the March Ended

Stops on this tour