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Process Paper

For this years National History Day Competition, Leadership and Legacy in

History, I wanted to research a topic currently in the public eye. I decided to

research the Selma to Montgomery Marches, following the release of the movie
Selma in 2014 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the marches that altered the
pathway of African-American suffrage in America. In my initial research, I
pinpointed the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as the
source of the effectiveness of the Selma Marches in the passage of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965.

I began my research by interviewing a professor at my local university,

Doctor Matt Harris, a professor of American history at the Colorado State University
Pueblo campus. After Doctor Harris provided me with an overview of my topic, I
broadened my research to legal documents, archives, and books. I also utilized
several timelines to give me an overview of my topic. I finally expanded my research
to pictures, graphs, and quotations to supplement and illustrate my research on my
website. I attempted to contact several professors; several didnt respond, but
Brenda Plummer, David Carter, Michael Mayer, and Kerry Pimblott answered
questions. My most valuable primary resource is the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committees report on Bloody Sunday, and my most valuable
secondary source is Doctor Matt Harris.

To display my topic, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the

Selma to Montgomery Marches, I chose to create a website. Websites are more

pliable in terms of the presentation of information than the other given project

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types, and I felt a website could convey my topic and research the most efficiently.
By creating a website, I could easily differentiate the various subtopics within my
broadened research, which is very advantageous to both the viewer and myself.
Through graphics and imaging coupled with the presentation of text and media, a
website could present my research the most effectively and efficiently.

This topic, the Southern Christian Leadership conference and their efforts to

enact legislation to make African-American suffrage in the southern United States

more obtainable, clearly relates to this years theme, Leadership and Legacy in
History. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference provided the invaluable
leadership, through the Selma to Montgomery Marches, to pressure the United
States government into passing legislation to allow African-Americans the right to
unobstructed voter registration. Through the efforts of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, their organization of the Selma Marches, and the passage of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the United States entered an era in which African-
Americans have the freedom to vote for the people that govern them. This right
allows African-Americans to speak out for their needs and, more importantly, to
take action against the suppression of their rights. Many prominent figures in the
Civil Rights Movement understood the importance of the vote; the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference provided the leadership necessary to gain that
right and to provide a legacy in which African-Africans have an empowered and
important voice.

Word Count: 499