This cartoon focuses on police violence in 1965, during voting rights protests in Selma, Alabama. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had banned legal segregation in the American South but African-Americans were still prohibited from voting in most southern states. The civil rights movement made Selma, Alabama, a target of voting rights protests. On March 7, 1965, state troopers brutally attacked peaceful marchers with tear gas and clubs, an event broadcasted that evening on national television. The national outrage reflected in this cartoon forced state officials to allow a peaceful march a few days later. Here, a patch on the state trooper’s shoulder reads “storm troopers,” a reference to World War II-era Nazis. The war and German fascism were recent memories for many readers of the Recorder.
Greenfield Recorder-Gazette. “I got one of ’em just as she almost made it back to the church.” March 11, 1965. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l08-002/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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