The Selma and Montgomery marches were part of a broader voting rights movement throughout American letters.
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches , held in 1965 , along the 54-mile ( 87 km ) highway from Selma , Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery . The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote , in defiance of segregationist repression , and were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South .