James Barker's Selma March photographs

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Young people, jubilant in the success of the march, roam singing and chanting through the St. Jude complex. In 1965, thousands of people gathered and marched in favor of voters rights, Thursday, March 18 - Wednesday March 24, 1965 from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama.

This year America notes the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the state's capital, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The 1965 protest remains prominent for two reasons. It helped bring about passage of the federal Voting Rights Act and produced photos and television broadcasts that galvanized public opinion.

Some of the most remarkable of those images, the subject of two upcoming exhibits in the Lower 48, are by longtime Alaskan photographer James H. Barker.

Barker grew up in Pullman, Wash., the son of an engineering professor at Washington State University, where he attended college and found a job as a technical photographer. He was getting ready to close up the shop one Friday evening when the phone rang.

He'd was being asked to head to Selma to photograph the march.

READ MORE: Alaskan's historic photos taken from inside civil rights movement