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"I got one of 'em just as she almost made it back to the church" cartoon from Greenfield Recorder-Gazette newspaper

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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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 broadcast that evening on national television. 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.

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