James Baldwin was a powerful voice in the modern Civil Rights Movement. As a journalist, he reported on significant historical events, particularly in the South, and he attended major marches. Here he is his pictured speaking in Selma, Alabama where he participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. The march was a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights.

About the march, James Baldwin had written, “I could not suppress the thought that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.”