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Selma the movie essay analysis
American civil rights movement role of women
Civil rights movements in the united states
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Selma is a very iconic historical movie which is based on the 1965 demonstration for voting rights through a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama led by the distinguished civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. The film was directed by Ava DuVernay, written by Paul Webb and stirred by David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo and Andre Holland. The author of the movie wanted to show the real history of the struggle for the equal voting rights of the black people in the US. The film movie was produced on 25th December 2014 and has a running time of 128 minutes. While addressing a congregation of more than 700 people, Ava DuVernay, the director of the film outlined that they intended to emphasize on the achievements of the women and …show more content…
It is a very educative film which students in both middle school and college should use in understanding what happened in the past. By adequately giving explicit scenes in the Selma campaign, the author marks the success of the civil rights movement because it was the catalyst behind the voting rights act passage in 1965. This helps the audience to broaden their perspectives on the understanding the mechanism and process behind the abolishment of racial segregation in the US. In conclusion, the film is very significant as it is an excellent education tool which can be used in our schools to enhance easy understanding of the US history. The scenes involving Colia, Mrs. Boynton and Marie Foster are very crucial as they inform the present generation on the central roles of the women in achieving the right to vote among the black people in the history of the US. The scenes provide reasonable grounds on why America should celebrate the role of women in the liberation of the nation. Despite the then president of US being given credit typically by the writer of the movie, the film presents the full credit for the efforts of the civil rights movement whose efforts in white opposition could not be ignored by the US government. The authors of the film were successful in their objective of bringing into the light the road behind the liberation of the black people in the US and this is the reason I will rate it at 4/5
The forties and fifties in the United States was a period dominated by racial segregation and racism. The declaration of independence clearly stated, “All men are created equal,” which should be the fundamental belief of every citizen. America is the land of equal opportunity for every citizen to succeed and prosper through determination, hard-work and initiative. However, black citizens soon found lack of truth in these statements. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 rapidly captured national headlines of civil rights movement. In the book, Coming of Age in Mississippi, the author, Anne Moody describes her experiences, her thoughts, and the movements that formed her life. The events she went through prepared her to fight for the civil right.
Bridge to Freedom provides the historical documentary behind the events that served as the narrative for Selma. Instead of a drama, the viewers receive an actual documentary that shows the confrontations between the marchers and the government. Like Selma, it highlights the violence, the deaths, and the beatings, but also goes further back in time to show society’s treatment of African Americans.
The Civil Rights Movement was an act in the 1950’s and 1960’s in which African Americans tried to achieve civil rights equal to whites. During this time, there was definite tension; African Americans were nonviolently protesting for their rights. In the movie Remember the Titans, The Civil Rights Movement ties in because of bussing black and white neighbourhoods together, also causing the football team, The Titans to come together. The linebacker on the team, Gerry Bertier represents a good and fair captain in these feuding times, for he accepted the African Americans deeply after some bonding exercises. The essay will persuade the reader that Gerry Bertier was a good and fair captain because (1) he didn’t tolerate others not treating African Americans on the team well, (2) he shows leadership and responsibility throughout the team, (3) and he stayed motivated.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
However, it reminds us of how black people acquired their rights in America, despite the racism that had been engraved in the country long before our time. Selma tells the details of the SCLC campaign in which they organized the Montgomery March of 1965. The Film covers all of the most important facts where it describes the sad situation that black people faced when they tried to register in order to vote in the segregated south. For example, in a scene performed by Oprah Winfrey we see her trying to register to vote, in this exercise she is being questioned and intimidated by a series of questions from the voter registrar. At this point we tend to understand what the film is all
...War and the Civil Rights Movements in order to illustrate how the 1960s was a time of “tumult and change.” To Anderson, it is these events, which sparked the demand for recognition of social and economic fairness. He makes prominent the idea that the 1960s served as the origin of activism and the birth of the civil rights movement, forever changing ideals that embody America. The book overall is comprehensive and a definite attention grabber. It shows how the decade had the effect of drastically transforming life in America and challenging the unequal status quo that has characterized most of the nation's history. Despite the violence and conflict that was provoked by these changes, the activism and the liberation movements that took place have left a permanent imprint upon the country.
In the book, Colaiaco presents the successes that Dr. King achieves throughout his work for Civil Rights. The beginning of Dr. King’s nonviolent civil rights movements started in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks refused to move for a white person, violating city’s transportation rules. After Parks was convicted Dr. King, who was 26 at the time, was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). “For 381 days, thousands of blacks walked to work, some as many as 12 miles a day, rather than continue to submit to segregated public transportation” (18). This boycott ended up costing the bus company more than $250,000 in revenue. The bus boycott in Montgomery made King a symbol of racial justice overnight. This boycott helped organize others in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tallahassee. During the 1940s and 1950s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a series of cases that helped put it ahead in the civil rights movement. One of these advancements was achieved in 1944, when the United States Supreme Court banned all-white primaries. Other achievements made were the banning of interstate bus seating segregating, the outlawing of racially restraining covenants in housing, and publicly supporting the advancement of black’s education Even though these advancements meant quite a lot to the African Americans of this time, the NAACP’s greatest accomplishment came in 1954 with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown vs. Board of Education case, which overturned the Plessy vs.
The documentary Freedom Summer was released on January 17, 2014 by veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson. The documentary was made to serve as a reminder of the summer activists spent in 1964 in order to register African-American voters. The film showed the state of Mississippi during that time as being filled with hatred and segregation toward African Americans. The film is trying to show us the people who united together to bring freedom to African Americans. Even white people rebelled with African Americans to show that they did not support racism and that African Americans should have the right to vote just like any citizen.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
Being beaten, whipped, tortured, harassed, and even intimidation where all method used to detour those that are black the opportunity to vote. The film gave me a different perspective on life and the benefits that I have as a white individual. The loyalty and courage that MLK and his followers had to overcome slavery, the Voting Rights Acts and many other acts of courage made me realize that anything could happen with the unity of a group of people. The film made me feel increasingly sad that those involved with this period of time had to go through the various acts of violence that African Americans went through. Not being granted the basic values of life that everyone deserves makes you realize how much an individual has today compared to what they had in the past. It inspired me to reach out to those that are still racist and help get the point across that it’s not ok to discriminate against a race depending on the color of their skin. The way white people decided to live their lives offended I and the way that I decide to live my life. To know that an individual like me would be brutally beaten for hanging out with the opposite race made me realize exactly how brutal slavery was after they desegregated the south. It enlightened me to continue to make change to the way people
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
The march from Selma to Montgomery drew a lot of attention. Some negative and some positive. The book said that ten doctors and nurses flew to Selma and there was ambulance close and available. There were also reporters there and as the police and other authorities advanced on the peaceful protestors, cameras were catching the action. On every front-page paper in America, pictures of tear gas and beaten marchers showed the nation the ugly truth that was the total racism in the South. Roy Reed, a reporter at the scene described what he saw. Reed’s story was brutal just like every other witness that gave their story that was there and after these stories were published the outrage spread (p.60). After Selma, Pratt said that the movement was able to take off. He said that Dr. King was able to be taken serious (p.98). This is why things were able to get done. With the support of the majority of the nation behind them, the voting rights movement took off. It is why the voting rights act was signed on the sixth of August
The movie, Selma, was based off of the Civil Rights protest for voting rights in 1965. Selma is located in Alabama and Dr. Martin Luther King travels there from Atlanta, Georgia to help get rid of segregation there. In the movie, there were famous politicians and activists which include: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Malcolm X, John Lewis, J. Edgar Hoover, and George Wallace. Activist are the most responsible for social change, because they are the most active in protesting, marching, etc. They want a change in the blacks right to vote and they believe they should have an equal opportunity as whites. Politicians are slow to sign on, because white politicians did not want blacks to be in office, therefore Johnson could not get
Recently, there is a spike of historical films being released lately. One of the films is an Academy Award nominee for “Best Picture,” Selma. The film, Selma, is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The film shows the struggles of the black community face with the blockage of their voting rights and the racial inequality during the civil rights movement. Selma is about civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. heading to the rural Alabama City, Selma, to secure the voting rights for the African American community by having a march to Montgomery. It shows the struggles from what the African American community had to endured during the 1960s. Selma shows a social significance to today’s current events, specifically
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...