The population of the small historic town of Selma, Alabama swells once a year as people from around the nation flock to its downtown, its churches before finally gathering for the crescendo event -- walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Charles Mauldin was near the front of a line of voting rights marchers walking in pairs across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. The marchers were protesting white officials’ refusal to allow Black Alabamians to register to vote,

On March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights advocates, including late Congressman John Lewis, gathered for a peaceful march for voting rights in Selma when they were attacked and beaten by Alabama State Troopers.