In 1965, six hundred civil rights protesters led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis knelt in prayer before marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a structure named after a KKK leader. As they neared the other side, they were met by state troopers, deputies, and posse men, who soon launched a brutal attack. The violence, broadcast nationwide, shocked the country and became a major turning point in the fight for voting rights, leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.