On February 18, 1965, an Alabama State Trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a participant in a march for civil rights. Jackson’s death inspired activists to hold another march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital Montgomery about fifty miles away. On March 7 hundreds of marchers proceeded as far as Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge when they were attacked by state troopers. Dozens of marchers were injured in what has become known as Bloody Sunday. Images of that day’s violence shocked many in the nation and internationally. Two days later a second abortive attempt by marchers to cross the bridge led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. turned around and reversed course on the bridge in accordance with a federal judge’s restraining order. The events in Alabama spurred President Lyndon Johnson to convene a joint session of Congress on March 15 to advocate for a new voting rights bill.