The right to vote was first guaranteed to black Americans (or at least black males) in 1870 with the passage of the 15th Amendment; but for nearly 100 years after, that right was systematically obstructed in many places across the nation. (Even now, voting rights remain contentious with portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 having been struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 and new voter ID laws sparking heated debate over the impact on voter participation).
By the early 1960s, things were particularly bad in portions of the South – especially in Alabama, which had become a flashpoint for civil rights battles since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery. Throughout the state, black citizens applying to vote were repeatedly blocked by local registrars – known to give impromptu literacy and civics tests featuring absurdly difficult questions designed to fail all takers. Furthermore, widespread poll taxes discouraged the poor and penalized those who chose to vote even if they succeeded in getting registered. By 1965, there were counties in Alabama where not a single black person had voted in any election for the previous 50 years.
In Selma – where only 130 of 15,000 black citizens were registered – citizens began to fight back. The national civil rights group, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (known as SNCC or “snick”), started organizing in the area in 1963, but faced considerable resistance, particularly from segregationist Sheriff Jim Clark who utilized local posseys to intimidate, arrest and flat-out beat up those engaged in voter drives.
In January of 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. – the young pastor who was becoming the nation’s most influential moral voice for nonviolent struggle against racism — along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (a group of ministers leading nonviolent boycotts, marches and sit-ins to protest segregation across the South) arrived in Selma to assist their growing movement.
In the preceding two years, Dr. King had given his momentous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C., just months before four innocent little girls were murdered in a Birmingham, Alabama church bombed in an act of white supremacist terrorism. Only a few months before arriving in Selma, King had won the Nobel Peace Prize and then been named Man of the Year by Time Magazine, which declared him “the American Gandhi.” Unfortunately, prophetically, like Ghandi, King was gunned down three years later.
From its explosive start to its inspiring outcome, SELMA is a searing indictment of the civil rights violations perpetrated in apartheid America and the antics of white supremacists particularly in the south, This town, especially, was held in the grip of an Alabama Taliban.
Led by David Oyelowo in the role of Martin Luther King, SELMA boasts a brilliant supporting cast including Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Tim Roth as Governor George Wallace, and Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper.
That none of these fine performances did not register with Academy voters is astonishing, as is the snubbing of director Ava Duvernay.
Of all the films nominated for Best Picture in this year’s Academy Awards, SELMA is the least decorated, the only other nomination received is for Best Song, ironically, arguably its weakest quotient.
Seems Hollywood is more enamoured of giving out medals to American Snipers than American peacemakers.
