Selma

I have such a difficult time comprehending that there was a time within the lives of my parents where Black people had to march against segregation and the right to vote. This kind of archaic mindset of some of the people in the South feels like something from a very long time ago, not something that was barely before my lifetime. Yet when I spent two years of my life living in Mississippi and Louisiana in the mid-1990s, the scars from that recent history were still very much apparent. The hurt and the pain from decades of persecution and prejudice were not buried and forgotten. It’s an embarrassing and upsetting reality of our history that not all have left in the past. It was appalling to read that Jim Clarke, the Sheriff of Selma, Alabama, who was particularly brutal to the Black peaceful protesters, said in an interview in 2006 that he would act the same way if he had to do it again. Here’s a man in the 21st century who had no regrets about beating unarmed black men and women for simply protesting being denied their legal rights to vote. 

If you travel to Selma today and approach the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which spans the Alabama River, you will see on both sides of the bank signs of the famous walk in which the film Selma dramatizes. The National Voting Museum is on the north side, and on the southern side is The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. These two institutions mark the historical marches that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led in 1965 along the 54-mile highway from Selma to the capital of Alabama, Montgomery. These marches were a nonviolent protest against the state for denying the Black citizens their constitutional right to vote. These marches attracted white protesters, too, both for and against the cause. These people, both Black and White, were subjected to the brutality of Sheriff Jim Clarke, who abused his power to assault the protestors with a level of brutality that is appalling. Once the Black people won their right to register to vote unencumbered, he was one of the first casualties, losing his office in the next election and never serving in a formal position of authority again. Amelia Boynton Robinson, a key figure in the march to Montgomery, attended his funeral in 2007. I can only imagine her feelings on that day.

This is a story that needs to be told. I grew up in an era and place where my exposure to Black culture and history was through television. As a child, I equated Black families to what I was seeing weekly on The Cosby Show. Growing up in Montana, I didn’t really know any Black people, let alone whole families, so I was a bit sheltered on this. One day, though, on a special episode of The Cosby Show, there was a segment where Cliff Huxtable was visiting with his father, Russell, and the subject turned to the Civil Rights Marches. At the time, I remembered thinking that the timing couldn’t be right. That this couldn’t have been in their lifetimes. Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention in school, but I thought all of that was settled in the Civil War. Later, through other media and more comprehensive classes on American History, I would learn more about how long it took between freeing the slaves to extending them all the rights they deserved. Moving to the South in the summer of 1995 was a further eye-opener. 

I know I am not the only one who was not taught this part of history sufficiently. I work with people who remain clueless to all of this, not all of them white, either. We, as a nation, like to pretend the bad things that were done never happened. That’s why a film like this should be introduced to people and help them understand not only what happened but why it happened. While there is plenty of stuff in Selma that isn’t historically accurate, it should inspire viewers to learn more about the events. 

The film opens with four Black girls walking down the stairs in a Birmingham, Alabama Baptist Church. A bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan goes off, killing them and leveling the building. This scene is followed up by Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) attempting to register to vote in Selma, Alabama. The White registrar uses his position in office to prevent her from being able to. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) in the White House to discuss Annie and the thousands of other Black citizens who are being denied their constitutional right to vote. Johnson wants to hold off on action, though, preferring to focus on less controversial matters such as his war on poverty. As King is leaving the oval office he proclaims to his men, “Selma, it is.”

As he meets with his followers in Selma, Alabama, King makes plans for a peaceful demonstration, gathering the protesters together for a march to the state capital. Meanwhile, the governor of Alabama, George Wallace (Tim Roth), J. Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker), and others try to put up figurative roadblocks to the movement, including targeting Martin Luther King’s marriage, which they feel is strained by the threats of violence and the stress of everything else. The first attempt at a march is met with brute force, leaving many people injured and upset. King implores them to continue nonviolently, as taking up arms will not help the cause. A second attempt at a march is called off at the last minute when King suspects a trap. Ultimately, through some intervention from a higher office, the march is allowed, and the rest is history. 

It is an utter embarrassment that, even after federal law gave the Black people the right to vote, there were still people, with full support from their government, preventing them from exercising their authority to do it. In the film, the faces of that opposition are Sheriff Jim Clarke (Stan Houston) and Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth). There are others that play a part in it, including J. Edgar Hoover, but these two are the primary faces of the opposition. George Wallace ran for election on the policy of segregation and infamously declared that he stood for “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” We get that smarmy, self-righteous attitude from Tim Roth, who is underplaying his character to avoid coming across as too mustache-twirling, while at the same time making sure we fully understand his disdain for the Black race. He was a hard man who ran for the office of the president of the United States four times, only to fail each time, the voters he so wanted to suppress contributing to his downfall. 

 

David Oyelowo is a wonderful surprise in the role of MLK. He is avoiding the trappings of playing such a known public figure as King was while at the same time giving us a very personal glimpse of the man away from the podium. MLK, as portrayed here, was willing to extend a hand to anyone, white or black, and on occasion he was assaulted with his hand out in greeting. It’s not easy turning the other cheek in the face of violence and intolerance. It would be so easy, while watching the peace officers descend down on the peaceful marchers, to fight back. We see this conflict in his eyes on a number of occasions knowing he is justified in fighting back but also knowing that is better not to.

This is a powerful look at a time in history that we should never forget. Yet it is getting forgotten as we see such things as Black Lives Matter, the push to expel immigrants, and overall racial intolerance that has descended once again upon this once great country. Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The kind of hatred for people who are different-looking than us should have long been eliminated and relegated to the history books and films like this. Instead, we are seeing it all over again, and we need films like Selmato remind us why this is not something we should be repeating. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Christian Colson, and Oprah Winfrey

Best Original Song: “Glory” by John Legend and Common (won)

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Release Date: December 25, 2014

Running Time: 128 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, Giovanni Ribisi, Alessandro Nivola, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tim Roth, and Oprah Winfrey

Directed By: Ava DuVernay