Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located upon the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About 80% of the population is African-American.

Selma was a trading center and publicize town during the antebellum years of King Cotton in the South. It was moreover an important armaments-manufacturing and iron shipbuilding middle for the Confederacy during the Civil War, surrounded by miles of earthen fortifications. The Confederate forces were defeated during the Battle of Selma, in the final full month of the war.

In advanced times, the city is best known for the 1960s civil rights doings and the Selma to Montgomery marches, beginning with “Bloody Sunday” in 1965 and ending as soon as 25,000 people entering Montgomery at the terminate of the last march to press for voting rights. This activism generated national attention for social justice and that summer, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress to sanction federal oversight and enforcement of constitutional rights of anything American citizens.

Due to agriculture and industry decline, Selma has lost about a third of its zenith population in the 1960s. The city now is focusing its income on tourism for its major shape in civil rights and desegregation. Selma is then one of Alabama’s poorest cities past an average allowance of $35,500, which is 30% less than the disclose average. Selma afterward has a high poverty rate with one in all three residents in Selma living under state poverty line.