While helicopters buzzed overhead, National Guard soldiers ordered by President Lyndon Johnson to protect the marchers lined U.S. Highway 80, alert to the potential for violence from angry whites. The marchers walked mile after tired mile as black supporters in Lowndes County, a county with no registered black voters at the beginning of 1965, left fields and homes to wave them on. Local whites watched in silent amazement and disgust, while some, seething with anger, jeered and sneered as the marchers passed. People came waving and bringing something to drink, and the United States government and military provided protection for this nonviolent crusade.