City in south-central Alabama.
Note: In 1965, during the civil rights movement, Selma was the center of a registration drive for black voters, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
city, seat (1865) of Dallas county, central Alabama, U.S. It lies on the Alabama River about 50 miles (80 km) west of Montgomery. The site was first recorded on a map in 1732 as Ecor Bienville; it was later called Moore's Bluff, for a settler who arrived about 1815. It was renamed about 1819 by William Rufus King, an organizer of the town, for one of Scottish poet James Macpherson's Ossian poems. A Confederate supply depot during the American Civil War, it was burned by Union troops after being captured in battle (April 2, 1865).