Ethical Issues In Selma

In 2014, a revolutionary movie named Selma depicted the Black activism and civil rights movement that occurred in the 1960’s with one the most famous black activist leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. The key emphasis of this movie was the voting rights march of Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in 1965. In fact, the main goal of Doctor King was to make President Lyndon Johnson pass a law that would allow the black community to have the rights of vote. In this essay, we will focus on the journey of Martin Luther King and his fellows for the fighting of their voting rights and, we will focus on the several aspects that the movie highly illustrates.
Firstly, one of the main aspects that the movie Selma put out in the relationship between Mr King and the

federal government. In fact, from the beginning of the movie to the end, Doctor King tried to remain a cordial relationship with the government. He tried to use this respectful and cordial relationship to make the voice of many black African American be heard. For instance, in the first twenty minutes of the movie, Lyndon Johnson, vice president of John F. Kennedy and future president of the United States, argued that the passing of the law allowing Blacks to vote would have to wait. This decision will kind of lead to heated up but cordial relationship between Doctor King and the government. On one hand, this relationship could help the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, it would help the black civil rights movement as there would be an intermediate between the black community and the government. It would help their requisitions be taken into consideration by the government as they have a leader voice that is allowed to have a dialogue with the president. However, this relationship could also hurt the movement because not all requisitions from the black community would be taken into consideration by the government which thus could lead to violent reactions from Black African American. That affects the movement as by being violent many would be hurt.
Furthermore, another prominent aspect of this movie is the way Doctor King sees the media as being crucial to his movement.

In fact, he states that even though he is fortunate to deliver the community’s message to the president himself, they, President, and federal government, chose to either delay the actions that must be taken or simply ignore the requisitions. Therefore, Mister King argues that the only way to get the President’s attention would be to use the press (tv News and newspapers). The media are important to him because it is one of the only ways to raise the white consciousness. In order to do so, the tactics Doctor King thought would be appropriate were to use “drama”. These dramas referred to marches, protests, and boycotts. Doctor Luther King thought those methods would be the only way to gain headlines in media. In some ways, I agree with these tactics because by protesting and marching the government knows how serious the issues are to the Black Community as his slogan was “Negotiate, demonstrate and resist” (King, Selma, 2014) peacefully. Martin Luther King Jr. made sure that the violence would only come from the white community and never from blacks. All he wanted his community and him to do was to march or protest silently and peacefully rather than being a threat to the white

community.
Thirdly, one other issue the movie emphasized on was the relationship between different Civil Rights Leaders. In fact, those relationships were tense yet peaceful. For instance, the movie pointed out the relationship Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had in the 1960’s. Both activists shared the same view of blacks integrating and being granted their rights. However, the methods and opinions differed. Malcom X stated that he considered that having a different method of protesting did not make him and Doctor King enemies. Each are depicted as different from each other but remained respectful and uncompetitive even though Doctor King went upset at Malcolm X for calling him names. I believe these organizations did complement each other rather than hurting each other. I think so because even though their views remained different, the relationship remain respectful and peaceful. The leaders either supported each other or just went their separate ways. They did not betray each other or block the other one from being an activist.
Finally, the last aspect that could catch the viewer’s attention would be the way Lyndon Johnson was portrayed in this film.

President Johnson was portrayed as kind of an angry white man and someone that was not willing to help in the beginning of the movie. He also does not entirely trust the black community as he sent the FBI bugging homes and hotels of the black community. Also, he is presented as an undecisive president. In fact, lots of his sayings were based on “I can’t” or “It can wait” which shows that he would still want to take actions but was a bit scared to do so because he had to consider others’ opinion of him. Even though in the beginning of the movie Lyndon Johnson was not portrayed as a strong supporter for the Black Civil Rights, he at the end cedes and passed out the law allowing Blacks to vote. This decision proves that he started a strong supporter and that will affect his legacy. This idea of legacy was important to him because he wanted to be seen as a democratic President, someone who cared and defended the idea of anti-segregation and

egalitarianism
To conclude, Selma does a great job depicting the several aspects of the March of Selma journey for Martin Luther King and his fellows in order to obtain the right to vote. It was essential to put out the relationships between Doctor King and the government and also with other prominent black activists. It was not an easy journey but at the end Martin Luther King made sure that the Black community would have their own rights. The legacy of Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King’s remain egalitarian, democratic, revolutionary and compassionate.