'Selma': The Voting Rights Movement

What is the Selma March – On the 2nd of January 1965 Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Dallas Country Voters and other local African Activists who were in a voting rights campaign, and they decided to make Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South because there was infamous brutality of law enforcement under Sheriff Jim Clark.

The film Selma tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for equal voting rights during the Civil Rights Movement of 1965. Many events in the beginning of the movie set up the plot for the rest of the film; Dr. King accepts his Nobel Peace Prize, a group of black girls are killed in a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan, and Annie Cooper is denied the ability to vote by a white registrar in Selma, Alabama. King then asks President Lyndon Johnson to pass a law to allow African Americans to freely register to vote. The unsure president tells King he has more important tasks to focus on and dismisses the Reverend’s request. Throughout the film, King’s actions are “logged” with the time, depicting the importance within the storyline. These events eventually lead up to King’s march to the voting

The Selma to Montgomery March influenced Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act to gain the voting equality in the South.

The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.

“There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled Negroes ”… These words said by Martin Luther King Jr. marked a new dawn for African Americans and their right to freedom as citizens of the United States. The march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama brought equality to blacks and changed the course of American history.

The 1965 Selma protest led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, there were three protest marches that attributed to the civil rights movement during this time. It was a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, which took place from March 7-21, 1965. The protest movement in Selma was launched by local African-Americans, who formed the DCVL. It was later joined by organizers from the SNCC, they began

King due to the safety of his people. On March 15, 1965, President Johnson invited both Dr. King and John Lewis to listen to speech related to events on Bloody Sunday and vowed to act with Congress to design a law to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote. Later that week, the federal judge officially issued a ruling on the right to march and granted Dr. King the right to lead a march from Selma to Montgomery with the protection of federal State Troopers. Immediately, Dr. King set a new march date: March 21, 1965 which was huge success. Incidentally, President Johnson introduced the voting rights bill into Congress same day. Incidentally, few weeks before President Johnson introduced the voting rights bill, a prominent black activist, Malcom X spoke at rally in Selma telling blacks that many of his black activists and civil rights leaders would not agree with him in taking a radical approach to remove racial inequality and injustices since he saw no progress in moral suasion. Later, Malcolm X was interviewed about his speech about taking radical approach in Selma but his response was that his speech was to send a message to both government and police of Selma that blacks can respond with force if

Around the 1950s, there was a large struggle for African Americans to vote. The main issues were barriers to voting. Alabama was one example of severe obstacles for voting. Literacy tests were mandatory for being allowed to vote and often led to discrimination as test proctors would give harder questions to those they disfavored. Poll taxes meant lower income citizens could not vote. Black Americans often lived far away from voting centers so restrictions were placed on transportation so they could not have a chance of voting. These conditions led to a small minority of African Americans that could actually vote. Demonstrations began by two groups of civil right advocates, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Student Nonviolent

The film Selma focuses on the struggle for african-americans who still faced discrimination, even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had legally desegregated the South. In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought alongside other civil rights activist to make the march from Selma to Montgomery, despite opposition from the police and mobs. The film focuses on MLK and other SCLC leaders, and black Selma residents who march to register for their right to vote. However, they are often met with force by the white crowds and police who often stop them with violence and even fatal deaths for the peaceful protesters. As MLK, the SCLC, the SNCC and other marchers prepare the Selma to Montgomery March across the EDmund Pettus Bridge, they are brutally

The Selma Freedom March was done in order to take the bull by the horns and gain the right to vote with no tests or discrimination, while promoting peace and equal rights. The Freedom March took place in Montgomery, Alabama on the Edmund Pettus bridge where those, white or black marched 54 miles to the end promoting a mass demonstration to achieve equal voting rights.

Since after the civil war, a movement began to give all Americans, regardless of race, the right to vote. During these movements most right activists participated in the widely known Selma to Montgomery march in Alabama. Because of the brutal destruction brought upon the peaceful protest, it awoke a sense of reality in the people of America. Consequently, this led to the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. It banned the use of literacy tests, in addition to federal supervision of voter registration in communities with less than 50

This movie first begins with Martin Luther King Jr. winning the Nobel Peace Prize and then shows four black girls who were killed by a bomb. Also at the beginning it shows a black lady who gets rejected from her right to vote. This is where Martin who is an activist and church pastor for the black community then shows his motivation to get blacks there right to vote. This is a very dangerous job for martin because whites do not want blacks

The film directed by Ada Devernay, “Selma”, portrays the fight that the Black leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., members of the Student Non-Violent Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had in the road to convinced President Lyndon Baines Johnson to help approved by the Congress and signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. The motion picture makes an emphasize in the events that marked the 1960s´ decade, where the African American population in the United States was trying to gain the right to vote and end discrimination in order to be treated as Whites were treated. Moreover, find a way the own government could accept colored people and stop opposing to the cause the Black group was fighting for. In addition, important incidents of that period are portrayed

Selma, a small town in Lower west Alabama, in spring of 1965 whites smell the fresh air of revolution. This movie was named after it though it’s not all about the civil rights movement. It is concentrated on specific period in Selma Alabama. All the character including Oprah Winfrey was up to date with their role in the movie. I personally felt that parents must be very cautioned if they are watching this movie with their kid as it contains several disturbing scenes and violence on people of color. They were beaten with sticks and even whips. Whereas innocent girls lost their lives in a church booming. This historical moment held in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr led a campaign about the secure voting rights. This movie illustrates the march

Selma is a historical drama film based on the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery led by Dr. King, James Bevel, Hosea Williams and John Lewis. The film was written by Paul Webb and directed by Ava Duvernay. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally desegregated the South, discrimination was still rampant in certain areas, making it extremely difficult for African Americans just to register to vote. In 1965, an Alabama city became the battleground in the fight for suffrage for African Americans. Dr. King first visited Selma AL with other Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) members in January 1965, shortly after he returned from Oslo, Norway and received the Nobel Peace prize. Of the 30,000 people in Selma, slightly more than half were black, but disproportionally only 350 blacks were registered to vote. In the movie black people that had tried to register such as Annie Lee Cooper played by Oprah Winfrey had been prevented by the white registrar, slow