Today in History: March 21, civil rights activists begin march from Selma to Montgomery
Associated PressToday in history: On March 21, 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama—this time under the escort of U.S. Army and National Guard troops assigned by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would boycott the Summer Olympic games in Moscow due to the Soviet Union’s failure to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. In 2012, meting out unprecedented punishment for a bounty system that targeted key opposing players, the NFL suspended New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton without pay for the coming season and indefinitely banned the team’s former defensive coordinator; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined the Saints $500,000 and took away two draft picks. In 2019, President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights—the first country to do so—in a major shift in American policy.
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