The 52-mile march down U.S. Highway 80 on March 21-25 required more than determination; it required a court order. After Alabama State Troopers and local sheriff's deputies attacked the 600 people crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference went to federal court on Monday. They asked for an immediate injunction ordering Alabama's state officials to permit the march to proceed. They didn't get it, but U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. scheduled a hearing for later that week. In the meantime, he ordered the SCLC not to march from Selma to Montgomery. King was under tremendous pressure to proceed, even if doing so might land him in contempt of court. In the end, King respected the court's order and so on Tuesday marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge — but then returned to Selma.