Timeline of Rev. Tom Turnbull’s visit to Selma

Here is a reconstructed timeline of Tom’s participation, from his notes, reflections from others he traveled with, and an interview he gave to the Napa Register, the day he returned from Selma and Montgomery.

  • March 17 – Tom heads to Selma, arriving at the airport in Montgomery.
  • March 18 – Tom is met at the airport by volunteers. He said that every bus, train, and plane were met by representatives from the civil rights movement who were there to protect the volunteers arriving to join the movement from the violence of segregationist counter-protesters.
  • Tom arrived that the movement’s headquarters, Brown’s Chapel AME Church. Volunteers from three churches provided meals for the demonstrators. And demonstrators were given housing at churches and hosted by families throughout the black neighborhood of Selma.
  • Tom said that thousands of black families opened their homes to host the volunteers, feeding and housing them during their stay. “Anything that was theirs was yours. They gave us beds and fed us.” He did not reveal the identity of the family who hosted him, for fear that they would be attacked.
  • March 19 – Tom joined others in picketing outside the courthouse to protest the detention of fifteen demonstrators who were being held in jail since the previous day. They had a parade permit for that demonstration.
  • March 19 afternoon – The demonstrators decided to test the Governor’s recent declaration that it was not illegal to peacefully picket in Alabama, by picketing the mayor’s house. Four hundred took part in this demonstration, approximately half were clergy. Tom was arrested, along with 355 others.
  • March 19 night – The 356 people arrested earlier in the day were kept overnight. There was not enough room in the jail, so an armory building was used to detain them overnight.
  • March 20, 10:00am – The protesters were released at ten a.m. and told that their arrest and detention had merely been protective custody for their own safety. They were not charged with a crime.
  • March 20, noon – The Episcopal delegation had planned a eucharist service at 1pm on Saturday. In October of 1964, the Episcopal Church approved changes to its cannons to requiring Episcopal Churches be open to all races. Bishop Millard, of the Diocese of California, and others planned to protest the violation of this rule taking place by the Diocese of Alabama continued practice of segregation. The Episcopal delegation planned to hold an integrated penitential service at St. Paul’s in Selma, or outside the church if they were not let in. Episcopal clergy, including Tom, decide to walk from the movement headquarters at Brown’s Chapel, to the all-white Episcopal Church, St. Paul’s, to hold the communion service. Approximately 150 demonstrators join them, far exceeding their expectations. But as they begin to walk they are stopped for not having a permit. Upon being halted by a city official (before entering the segregated white area of town), the Episcopal clergy begin a penitential prayer service there on the sidewalk. (An audio of the encounter between the crowd and the city official can be heard at this link in the Episcopal Archives) Not wanting to be arrested and miss the “Great March” to Montgomery which was to happen the next day, they return to headquarters and hold a communion service on the sidewalk for all. Participants wrote later that joy seemed to swell as the crowd grew in number and sang hymns and prayed. Well over 200 people receive communion, and before the service is over, over 30 police cars gather at the edge of the crowd.The march begins with speeches. Tom joins more than 5,000 people (he said the estimates varied between 5,000 and 10,000) who march 8 miles, across the Edmund Pettus bridge and out of Selma that day.They were instructed not to sing, for fear that it would provoke violence. They march in silence ignoring the angry taunts and yells from people who came out to line the highway and try to provoke the marchers.They march six-abreast, a mass of people, stretching it seemed as far as could be seen.”If the worst in American life lurked in [Selma’s] dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Montgomery, AL, March 25, 1965
  • March 21 morning – The third (and ultimately successful) attempt to march to Montgomery begins. This time under the court-ordered federal protection of FBI agents, Federal Marshalls, and hundreds of soldiers of the Alabama National Guard, who had been federalized.
  • March 21, 5:30pm – The federal protection order only allowed for 300 people to march along the 2-lane highway portion of the march to Montgomery (a 22-mile stretch). Tom recounted, that when they came to the place where only 300 could proceed, those who had survived the Bloody Sunday march were given the honor of continuing. Tom returned to Selma that evening with thousands of others.
  • March 22 – Tom volunteers at the civil rights movement headquarters in Selma, answering phones for the press desk.
  • March 23 – Tom spends the day volunteering with other demonstrators doing community improvement handiwork. Tom returns to Montgomery that afternoon.
  • March 23 night- Tom spends all night helping to construct a speaker’s platform at St. Jude’s Church in Montgomery, where an entertainment session was planned for the following day, featuring famous performers who were coming to support the movement.
  • March 24 – Tom re-joins the march, now past the 22 miles where their numbers were restricted. As they come nearer to Montgomery, their numbers swell to 25,000.
  • March 25 – Tom departs for home. The march arrives in Montgomery, and Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous speech “How Long? Not Long!” on the steps of the state capitol building.
  • March 28, 1965 – Tom Turnbull returns to St. Mary’s and preaches about his time in Selma.
  • August 6, 1965 – President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recalling the events in Selma, Johnson calls the right to vote, “the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice.” Meanwhile at St. Paul’s, Selma AL, the congregation celebrates their first integrated service. Their vestry voted earlier in the week to comply with the canons of the Episcopal Church, eliminating segregation. Presiding Bishop Hines (who had visited Selma himself in early March) hailed the decision, “Episcopalians everywhere should welcome the recent action of the Rector and vestry of St. Paul’s Selma, by which the inclusive nature of the Church is affirmed in their declared determination to admit any persons who come seeking to worship within the fellowship of Christ’s people.”