Why is MLK & the movie about Selma so important. After slavery we were in Reconstruction from 1867 to 1877. Congress granted African American ex-slave men the status and rights of citizenship, including the right to vote as guaranteed by the 14 & 15 Amendments to the Constitution, which at its inception didnt original include us because we were considered property not men (ie..Human). This lead to the first black elected officials to the Senate and Congress. Now what followed was a massive resistance to this new equality between southern ex-slave holders and ex-slaves, which brought intimidation, violence and even murder to these black officials trying to bring more fair legislation to the reconstruction period. So by 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes Abandoned the Ideal of Federal protection of the rights of these new black citizens. This put the power of these rights back in the hands of the states and the south reversed legislation immediately disenfranchising black voting rights and ending our presence in voting and in Congressional participation. So almost 100 years later in the 1960s we still cant vote and the KKK, segregation and Jim Crow laws rule the south with fear and trembling. What the movie Selma shows is how the movement & MLK forces the President LBJ to put the Federal legislation back in that was initially granted to us during reconstruction, a 100 years earlier. This is Very Very POWERFUL and it shows us now that even today without political participation by us it can happen today. We cant thank MLK enough for his sacrifice. Stay up people!!!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:55:09 +0000
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