In the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans intensified their efforts to demand release from oppression as part of the Civil Rights Movement. In Selma, Alabama, a black community had had enough, and through tragedy and conviction its hope was carried into a brief but important struggle to reaffirm that all men are created equal and that all citizens are guaranteed the right to vote. The drive for voting rights moved from Selma to the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery and on to the front door of the White House, culminating on August 6, 1965, when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law and changed the world.