On March 25, 1965, the third march from Selma to Montgomery ended triumphantly as 25,000 marchers arrived at the State Capitol building in Montgomery. That moment marked the largest gathering to date of civil rights demonstrators in the south, and the culmination of thevoting rights movement. March leaders delivered a petition for Alabama Governor George Wallace:

We have come not only five days and 50 miles, but we have come from three centuries of suffering and hardship. We have come to you, the Governor of Alabama, to declare that we must have our freedom NOW. We must have the right to vote; we must have equal protection of the law, and an end to police brutality.

But the real message of the day was delivered by Dr. King: