Suddenly, the streetlights went out, and the detachment of lawmen began assaulting the demonstrators with billyclubs. The terrified protesters scattered, while across the street white toughs attacked the contingent of national newsmen. NBC’s Richard Valeriani suffered a serious head wound, and a short distance away, inside a small café, a trooper shot a young black man who was attempting to shield his mother from the lawmen’s blows. The victim, Jimmie Lee Jackson, bleeding heavily from a stomach wound, was taken to a Selma hospital.
