The Hollywood version is Rosa Sat Down. Martin Stood Up. White People came in to Save the Day Excerpt from 10 things to know before seeing the new film Selma directed by Ava DuVernary, African American woman! Giving us the Peoples View of Civil Rights History. Selma activists invited Dr. King to join an active Movement with a long history. By late 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were looking for a local community where they could launch a campaign to force the country to confront the southern white power structure’s widespread discrimination against prospective Black voters. At the same time, Mrs. Boynton, the long-time leader of the Dallas County Voters’ League, wanted to escalate the struggle in Selma and invited SCLC in. SCLC saw Selma as ideal because: (1) The ongoing work of SNCC and the DCVL provided a strong base of organizers and people who could be counted on to attend mass meetings, march in demonstrations, attempt to register, and canvass prospective registrants; (2) Sheriff Jim Clark’s volatile white supremacy led King to believe he was likely to attack peaceful protesters in public, drawing national attention to the white violence underlying Black disfranchisement; and finally, (3) the Justice Department’s own lawsuit charging racial discrimination in Dallas County voter registration reinforced the need for action. 8. Youth and teachers played a significant role in the Selma Movement. An important breakthrough in the Selma Movement came when school teachers, angered by a physical attack on Mrs. Boynton, marched to the Courthouse on Jan. 22, 1965. Despite the prominence of King and a handful of ministers in history books, throughout the South most teachers and ministers stayed on the sidelines during the movement. Hired and paid by white school boards and superintendents, teachers who joined the Civil Rights Movement faced almost certain job loss.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:13:23 +0000
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