On This Day In Alabama History: Jimmie Lee Jackson Was Shot

Alabama News Center | February 18, 2017 @ 9:59 am

By Graydon RustAlabama 200

February 18, 1965

Alabama State Trooper J. Bonard Fowler shot black activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in the stomach during protests in Marion, and Jackson died eight days later. Jackson was eulogized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on March 3, and Jackson’s death sparked the halted Selma to Montgomery March that became known as Bloody Sunday. In 2005, Fowler publicly admitted to shooting Jackson and, in 2010, the 77-year-old Fowler pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to six months in jail. A historical marker honoring Jackson now stands in front of the Perry County Courthouse in Marion.

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