Marie Foster was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1960s. She was instrumental in helping to register many African American voters in Selma, Alabama

Selma, Alabama

Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....

, and was one of the primary local organizers of the Selma to Montgomery marches

Selma to Montgomery marches

The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...

 in 1965. She also helped create the Dallas County Voters League, a group of African Americans that pushed for improvements in the system for voter registration.

Voter registration

Foster became interested in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s because she felt "the race relations were so bad in Selma". She tried to register to vote eight times before succeeding. Following her successful registration, Foster began teaching other African Americans how to pass the tests used to bar them. One person showed up to her first class, in which she taught the 70-year-old man how to write his own name. Gradually, the classes drew more and more people.

Marches

As the Civil Rights Movement grew, Foster became an organizer for the Dallas County

Dallas County, Alabama

Dallas County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J. Dallas. The county seat is Selma.- History :...

 area. She participated in the march on March 7, 1965 that became known as Bloody Sunday. As the march approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a combined state trooper and police force stopped the march, violently beating many of the participants. Foster was at the front of one of the lines, and was clubbed by a state trooper, leaving her with her with swollen knees. Despite her injuries, two weeks later Foster participated in the march that eventually made it all the way to Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

, successfully walking fifty miles over five days.