After the first night of the march, the crowd was limited to only 300 people as they traveled through Lowndes County. At that time, highway 80 was only a two-lane highway.
At the end of the second day, the marchers camped on land owned by Rosie Steele, a 78-year-old black resident of Lowndes County.
The ground near her grocery store and filling station was infested with red ants, it was raining, and the food sent from Selma, by then 20 miles away, arrived cold. The next morning, the marchers improvised rain gear from plastic garbage bags and cardboard, but they were soon soaked.
Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service