“With helicopters whirring above and the 54 miles of highway closely guarded by U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard, the march into the Cradle of the Confederacy, Montgomery, was the greatest display of the power of the people’s right to peacefully petition since Gandhi’s Salt March to the sea. King’s ultimate faith in American justice was rewarded by the military’s
protection, by President Johnson’s vow that ‘we shall overcome’ and by Johnson’s call for passage of a voting rights bill.” 1965
