Landsat image shows route of 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march in Montgomery

NASA’s Earth Observatory published an Image of the Day on January 19, 2026, featuring a Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) scene taken on September 16, 2025 of Montgomery, Alabama. The image shows the ground covered by marchers who arrived at the state capitol after the March 24, 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march.

The march included more than 25,000 civil rights activists, including more than 3,000 people who had walked from Selma and camped at the Catholic social service complex at St. Jude during the final leg. On the last night marchers listened to performances by artists such as Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Sam Cooke, Tony Bennett, Leonard Bernstein, Nina Simone, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Early the next morning Martin Luther King Jr. led a five-mile procession that departed St. Jude, headed north toward downtown, turned east onto Dexter Avenue, passed the Baptist church where King once preached, and concluded on the steps of the state capitol. There King delivered his "How Long, Not Long" speech, also called "Our God is Marching On," saying in part, "How long?

Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." The outlet notes many historians consider that speech among his most consequential. The Selma-to-Montgomery march is described as a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and helped galvanize public support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 later that year.

Key Topics

Science, Voting Rights Act, Montgomery Alabama, Dexter Avenue, Martin Luther King, Selma March