SELMA RECALLS THE HEROES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE
Selma is intended to show the conflicts that Martin Luther King, Jr., (played by David Oyelowo) faced before the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. One conflict was with Malcolm X (Nigel Thatch), another with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Selma led by John Lewis (Stephan James), yet another with his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo). Of course, the main conflict was with the Sheriff Jim Clark of Selma (Stan Houston), the governor of Alabama, George Wallace (Tim Roth). The events portray the first march (Bloody Sunday, March 5), which was broken up by Reed, with many injuries captured on television, after which King makes a plea for others to join. When Whites travel to Selma in order to join, another march is planned for March 7 but aborted when King senses that there will be another massacre. That night Rev. James Reeb (Jeremy Strong), who came from Boston to participate, is murdered by apparent members of the KKK. Meanwhile, King awaits permission from a federal judge (Martin Sheen) to make the five-day march, at the conclusion of which King delivers another oratorical jewel. However, based on taped conversations, LBJ’s adviser Joseph Califano has protested that the film “falsely portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson [played by Tom Wilkinson] as being at odds with Martin Luther King, Jr., and even using the FBI to discredit him, as only reluctantly behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and as opposed to the Selma march itself.” According to Califano, LBJ urged King to engage in the Selma march as a way to focus on the need for passage of the law. Director Ava DuVernay, in response, has questioned Califano’s op-ed, evidently revealing something that she knew nothing about, since those involved in the march had a very different impression on hearing that Johnson urged King to delay the march until the favorable court decision. Johnson’s speech to a joint session of Congress promoting his Voting Rights Act (March 15) came before the five-day march (March 21-25), though the film suggests a reversal of the order. The bill passed the Senate on May 26, the House of Representatives on July 9, and was signed into law by Johnson on August 6. MH