In 1964 , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) accepts his Nobel Peace Prize . Four black girls walking down stairs in the Birmingham , Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church are killed by a bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan . Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to vote in Selma , Alabama but is prevented by the white registrar . King meets with Lyndon B. Johnson and asks for federal legislation to allow black citizens to register to vote unencumbered , but the president responds that , although he understands Dr. King 's concerns , he has more important projects . King travels to Selma with Ralph Abernathy , Andrew Young , James Orange , and Diane Nash . James Bevel greets them , and other SCLC activists appear . FBI director J. Edgar Hoover tells Johnson that King is a problem , and suggests they disrupt his marriage . Coretta Scott King has concerns about her husband 's upcoming work in Selma . King calls singer Mahalia Jackson to inspire him with a song
bomb
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Selma (film)