“Selma” is a 2014 historically film based on a true story. The film took place in 1965. The historical film is by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb. The film opens in 1965 when African American Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, for his exceptional leadership skills in peace and nonviolent resistance to racial segregation in America. Selma is based on a civil rights protest in efforts to register African Americans to vote in the south. The film displays devasting and heinous acts of racial injustices that negatively impacted the African American community. The Selma to Montgomery march was initiated by James Bevel and led by civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, Reverend Hosea Williams, Bob Mants, and Albert Turner. Dr. King, along with John Lewis, Reverend Hosea Williams, Bob Mants, and Albert Turner was a part of civil rights groups such as The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). On February 18, White segregationists attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators in the small town of Marion, Alabama. Amid all the chaos, an Alabama state trooper beat and shot and killed a young African American man Jimmie Lee Jackson. Jackson’s death got the attention of Dr. King and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Dr. King, SCLC, and civil rights activist planned a massive protest marching from Selma to Montgomery’s state capital. The Selma march took place Sunday, March 7, 1965. Selma (film) displays the historical march that thousands of African American citizens, including hundreds of priests, ministers, rabbis, civil rights activists, and social activists, participated in receiving African American citizens’ National Voting Rights. The March did not get far before Alabama state troopers and county posse men attacked protestors with wielding whip, nightsticks, billy clubs, tear gas, and other deadly weapons, seriously injuring and killing several peaceful protestors. This day civil rights activists were not given the right to speak when explaining their reasoning. It is evident that Selma to Montgomery shows the repression of police brutality, racism, and racial violence. Overall, the film represents systemic injustices during the civil rights movement. It is evident that in Today’s society, African Americans face the pressing issue of systemic injustices. The film Selma is a representation of history repeating itself as millions of African Americans march and demand justice due to racial acts of police brutality. I chose this historical film to shed light on how systemic injustice, racism, and police brutality still affecting African Americans fifty-five years later. The Black Lives Matter movement known as BLM is a decentralized political and social movement advocating for nonviolent protest against police brutality incidents and racially motivated violence against black people. The Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter have brought the African American community together, bringing awareness to racial discrimination, systemic injustices, equality, and police brutality.
