2016-02-26 Fri

The protests held by the Selma Foot Soldiers in 1965 lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. A commemorative coin was issued on 24th February on Capitol Hill with a congressional gold medal.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday – 7th March 2015, Public Law 114-5 was signed into law by President Obama. As the protesters' blood spilled by Alabama State Police, the first of three marches from Selma, Ala., to the state capital to Montgomery, in search of equality in the voting process, began.

The hundreds of protesters were led by John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, whose motive was to register African-Americans to vote throughout the state of Alabama, and the Rev. Hosea Williams, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The obverse design was created by artist Donna Weaver and sculptured by U.S. Mint Medallic Sculptor Phebe Hemphill. The design captures the Selma Foot Soldiers with arms locked as they march en masse across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.