1965 Selma Montgomery March Statement Issued by King & Abernathy: "…regret that…force [was] used to disperse demonstrators"

A contemporary fair copy of a joint statement issued on March 17, 1965 following a violent clash between Selma Montgomery March protestors and Montgomery County Sheriff deputies the day before. The statement is signed in PRINT by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, Rev. Jesse L. Douglas, and James Forman on the side of the protestors, and by Mac Sim Butler representing the Montgomery County Sheriff's office, among nine others for a total of 14 signers in print. The last name on the list is pen-inscribed. On beige paper in purple ink. Expected paper folds and a few extra wrinkles, else near fine. 8.5" x 14." Provenance: Ex-Dr. Jesse L. Douglas (born 1930), Dr. King’s close friend and fellow minister and Civil Rights activist. Douglas was instrumental in planning the Selma Montgomery March in March 1965. Dr. Douglas, who is an African American with albinism, was often misidentified by news agencies in photographs as a sympathetic “unidentified white man” appearing alongside black protestors.

The statement read in part:

"In our meeting, the Sheriff of Montgomery County, Mr. M.S. Butler, expressed regret that the force used to disperse the demonstrators yesterday resulted in the injury of several persons…

Therefore, it was agreed…that hereafter parade permits for peaceful demonstrations should be applied for and granted.

It was further agreed that demonstrators be urged to obey conditions of the permit and to refrain from the use of any form of violence, and that if county or city officials deem it necessary to disperse demonstrators, the minimum force warranted under the circumstances should be used…"

The Selma Montgomery March was a series of demonstrations that took place on the 54-mile route between Selma, Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama between March 6 and March 25, 1965, organized to highlight the discriminatory and extralegal restrictions placed on the exercise of black suffrage.

On March 16, 1965, about 580 demonstrators (of whom one quarter were white out-of-state college students or clergyman), were stopped at a Montgomery intersection. James Forman attempted to circumvent police lines while leading about 80 activists. This precipitated a violent clash with mounted Montgomery County police, who used lariats, canes, clubs, and horse flanks to beat and rebuff the protestors. Eight people had been hospitalized, including one of our printed signers, Steven Kuromiya, then a 21-year-old architecture student from the University of Pennsylvania. The last point stipulated in the statement, viz., that "only well-trained uniformed law enforcement officers be used in handling demonstrators," was a concession to the activists. This was because the sheriff's posse was composed of mostly local cattle ranchers, as opposed to professional police officers.

The clash was widely publicized in major national newspapers like "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post." The day after the violent scuffle, King led approximately 2,000 people in a march towards the Montgomery Sheriff's Office, where Sheriff Butler agreed to meet with Civil Rights activists. Conference negotiations lasted several hours and resulted in the mutually agreed upon points that enabled the marches to continue--under court ordered endorsement and protection--in the following days.

The most important participants and printed signers of this statement included:

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) in his role as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC had been co-founded by Dr. King and Reverend Abernathy in 1957. King, Jr. served as the group’s first president from its inception until his assassination in 1968.

- Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy (1926-1990), Secretary-Treasurer of the SCLC

- Dr. Jesse L. Douglas (born 1930), President of the Montgomery Improvement Association

- James Forman (1928-2005), Executive Secretary of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

- Montgomery County Sheriff Mac Sim Butler (ca. 1917-2001). Butler served as a nine-term Sheriff of Montgomery County between 1955 and his retirement in 1991.

The photo attached to this description for reference shows Dr. King, Dr. Douglas, and James Forman (instantly recognizable by his omnipresent overalls) walking arm-in-arm on March 17, 1965, the day following the activists' clash with police and the day the joint statement was issued.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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