• A gas station sits vacant in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A gas station sits vacant in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • Cars drive by a boarded up building in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    Cars drive by a boarded up building in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A house sits vacant on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A house sits vacant on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A pile of tyres lays in front of a shuttered auto parts business. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A pile of tyres lays in front of a shuttered auto parts business. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A pedestrian walks through a neighborhood with run down homes. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A pedestrian walks through a neighborhood with run down homes. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • Plastic sheeting covers the doors of a shuttered business on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    Plastic sheeting covers the doors of a shuttered business on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A view of a burned room in a vacant home on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A view of a burned room in a vacant home on March 6, 2015 in Selma, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A burned home sits vacant. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A burned home sits vacant. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • Tyres lay in the grass in front of a shuttered auto parts busines. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    Tyres lay in the grass in front of a shuttered auto parts busines. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • In this March 1, 1965 photo, Registrar Carl Golson shakes a finger at Martin Luther King Jr, during a meeting at the courthouse in Hayneyville, Alabama. King inquired about voter registration procedures but Golson told him that if he was not a prospective voter in Lowndes county, "it's none of your business." King visited two nearby counties after leading a voter registration drive in Selma. Harry Cabluck / AP Photo
    In this March 1, 1965 photo, Registrar Carl Golson shakes a finger at Martin Luther King Jr, during a meeting at the courthouse in Hayneyville, Alabama. King inquired about voter registration procedures but Golson told him that if he was not a prospective voter in Lowndes county, "it's none of your business." King visited two nearby counties after leading a voter registration drive in Selma. Harry Cabluck / AP Photo
  • City of Selma is written on a utility cover. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    City of Selma is written on a utility cover. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • School kids walk by a vacant home that is along the historic route that civil rights marchers took during the Selma to Montgomery march. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    School kids walk by a vacant home that is along the historic route that civil rights marchers took during the Selma to Montgomery march. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
  • A pedestrian pulls a shopping cart by vacant buildings. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP
    A pedestrian pulls a shopping cart by vacant buildings. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / AFP

Business

Inside one of the poorest cities in the US – in pictures

Liz Claus

March 24, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

Fifty years after the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery where marchers were beaten by State police officers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma struggles economically. It has a 10.2 per cent unemployment rate and more than 40 per cent of residents living below the national poverty level.

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