[Community-Service] Selma

[Steve Cook]

Date: Friday, January 8, 2022

Time: 8:00 PM Eastern

Location: Federation Center Zoom 

Movie, Selma

 

Plot

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. Four black girls walking
down stairs in the Birmingham, Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church are killed
by a bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan. Annie Lee Cooper attempts to register to
vote in Selma, Alabama, but is prevented by the white registrar. King meets
with Lyndon B. Johnson and asks for federal legislation to allow black
citizens to register to vote unencumbered, but the president responds that,
although he understands Dr. King's concerns, he has more important projects.
King travels to Selma with Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, James Orange, and
Diane Nash. James Bevel greets them, and other SCLC activists appear. FBI
director J. Edgar Hoover tells Johnson that King is a problem, and suggests
they disrupt his marriage. Coretta Scott King has concerns about her
husband's upcoming work in Selma. King calls singer Mahalia Jackson to
inspire him with a song.

 

King, other SCLC leaders, and black Selma residents march to the
registration office to register. After a confrontation in front of the
courthouse, a shoving match occurs as the police go into the crowd. Cooper
fights back, knocking Sheriff Jim Clark to the ground, leading to the arrest
of Cooper, King, and others.

 

Alabama Governor George Wallace speaks out against the movement. Coretta
meets with Malcolm X, who says he will drive whites to ally with King by
advocating a more extreme position. Wallace and Al Lingo decide to use force
at an upcoming night march in Marion, Alabama, using state troopers to
assault the marchers. A group of protesters runs into a restaurant to hide,
but troopers rush in and beat and shoot Jimmie Lee Jackson. King and Bevel
meet with Cager Lee, Jackson's grandfather, at the morgue. King speaks to
ask people to continue to fight for their rights. Harassing phone calls with
a recording of sexual activity implied to be King and another woman lead to
an argument with Coretta; she knows it is a fabrication, but the strain of
constant death threats has taken its toll on her. King is criticized by
members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

 

As the Selma-to-Montgomery march is about to begin, King talks to Young
about delaying it for a day so he can spend some time with his family, but
Young convinces King to let the march begin as scheduled without him, saying
he can join later. The marchers, including John Lewis of SNCC, Hosea
Williams of SCLC, and Selma activist Amelia Boynton, cross the Edmund Pettus
Bridge and approach a line of state troopers who put on gas masks. The
troopers order the marchers to turn back and, when the marchers hold their
ground, the troopers attack with clubs, horses, tear gas, and other weapons.
Lewis and Boynton are among those badly injured. The attack is shown on
national television and the wounded are treated at Brown Chapel, the
movement's headquarter church.

 

Movement attorney Fred Gray asks federal Judge Frank Minis Johnson to let
another attempt at the march go forward. President Johnson demands that King
and Wallace cease their activities and sends Assistant Attorney General John
Doar to convince King to postpone the next march. Numerous white Americans,
including Viola Liuzzo and James Reeb, arrive to join the second march.
Marchers cross the bridge again and see the state troopers lined up, but the
troopers turn aside to let them pass. King, after praying, turns around and
leads the group away, which again draws sharp criticism from SNCC activists.
That evening, Reeb is beaten to death by an angry white mob on a street in
Selma.

 

After a hearing, Judge Johnson approves the march. President Johnson speaks
before a Joint Session of Congress to ask for quick passage of a bill to
eliminate restrictions on voting, praising the courage of the activists. The
march on the highway to Montgomery takes place, and, when the marchers reach
Montgomery, King delivers a speech on the steps of the State Capitol.

 

Cast

David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr.[8]

Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King[9]

Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper[10]

Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B. Johnson[11]

Giovanni Ribisi as Lee C. White[12]

André Holland as Andrew Young[13]

Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bayard Rustin

Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy[14]

Omar Dorsey as James Orange

Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash[15]

Common as James Bevel[16]

Lorraine Toussaint as Amelia Boynton Robinson[17]

E. Roger Mitchell as Frederick D. Reese

Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover[18]

Ledisi Young as Mahalia Jackson[19]

Kent Faulcon as Sullivan Jackson[20]

Niecy Nash as Richie Jean Jackson[20]

Corey Reynolds as C. T. Vivian

Wendell Pierce as Hosea Williams[21]

John Lavelle as Roy Reed[22]

Stephan James as John Lewis[23]

Trai Byers as James Forman[24]

Lakeith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson[25]

Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee

Stan Houston as Sheriff Jim Clark

Tim Roth as George Wallace[26]

Nigél Thatch as Malcolm X

Stephen Root as Al Lingo

Michael Papajohn as Major John Cloud

Jeremy Strong as James Reeb[27]

Tara Ochs as Viola Liuzzo

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Fred Gray[28]

Alessandro Nivola as John Doar[29]

Michael Shikany as Archbishop Iakovos

Martin Sheen[30] as Frank Minis Johnson (uncredited)

 

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4awrn7eddQ&t=16s> Click here to view the
National Federation of the Blind of SC 2021 PSA!

 

Federation Center Zoom

 

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Note: recordings are deleted on Sundays. If you need a copy of the recording
for taking minutes, please send Steve Cook a message at
<mailto:cookcafe at sc.rr.com> cookcafe at sc.rr.com

 

 

 

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