Selma (Alabama)

Selma (Alabama), city, seat of Dallas County, central Alabama, on the Alabama River; incorporated 1820. Manufactures include wire, farm implements, automotive parts, cigars, packed meats, and forest products. Tourism is also important. Selma University (1878) and a community college are here. A Confederate munitions manufacturing center during the American Civil War, Selma fell to Union troops after a nearby battle on April 2, 1865. In 1965 it was the center of a major black voter registration drive led by Martin Luther King, Jr.; after encountering violent opposition in the city, King organized a protest march to Montgomery, the state capital. The city's name, used in James Macpherson's Ossian poems to mean “high seat,” refers to its location on a bluff above the Alabama River. Population 26,684 (1980); 23,755 (1990); 20,512 (2000); 19,401 (2005 estimate).