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Election ’08 in Civil Rights’ Ground Zero

1 minute read
By TIME

Photographer Mario Tama visits Selma and Birmingham as the nation elects its first black president

Historic Day

Birmingham and Selma, Alabama witnessed critical moments of the civil rights movement. In the early 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led massive protests in these cities that eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed the widespread discriminatory practices that had for decades prevented African Americans from voting.

Victory

Obama supporters cheer at an election night gathering at the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham. This venue was chosen for its historic significance. It was here that Strom Thurmond launched his Dixiecrat presidential run in 1948. nine years later, the KKK attacked Nat King Cole on stage during a "whites-only" concert.

Long Journey

Civil Rights leader James Armstrong, 85, sits in a chair at the barber shop in Birmingham where he cut MLK's hair. Armstrong participated in the Bloody Sunday march with Dr. King and was arrested six times during various civil rights protests in the 1960's.Photographs by Mario Tama / Getty

The Edmund Pettus Bridge

College students from the NAACP walk across the bridge where civil rights workers and others marching from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 were forcibly turned back by police with clubs and tear gas.

Icon

A portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hangs in a barber shop in the Civil Rights District of Birmingham.

Voting

Residents of Birmingham line up to vote in a recreation center on November 4.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

A boy lies on the carpet in front of a wall of portraits of former pastors of the church. In 1963, four young girls were killed in a bombing of the church, a tragedy that energized the civil rights movement.

Campaign Office

Obama volunteers assemble yard signs in Birmingham.

Long Wait

African Americans turned out in huge numbers across America to vote for Obama.

Remembering Bobby

A sign on a barbershop door pairs Robert F. Kennedy and Barack Obama. As JFK's Attorney General, RFK was a strong advocate for enforcing the civil rights laws.

Polling Station

Black residents of Birmingham wait for the opportunity to vote.

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