Social Workers Role In Selma

Social Worker’s Role in Selma

Social workers play a pivotal role helping one achieve social justice. “As such, the social justice mandate of the social work profession may be regarded as an ethical obligation to ensure that all persons have an equal right to access societal resources and opportunities so that they may fully participate in and be contributing members of society” (DuBois 136). Everyone deserves to live in a fair and equal society however, in the movie Selma portraying the years 1964-1965, this wasn’t how the American society lived. Despite segregation slowly coming to an end, racism was still a huge issue as blacks were denied the right to vote. This is where social workers step in: social injustice and inequality.

One of the scenes that portrayed discrimination was when an elderly female women who was attempting to register herself to vote got denied because of her race. She was being questioned

on how many county judges there was in Alabama, she said 67 which was correct. However, the next question the white male asked was to name them. There was no way anyone was going to be able to know each and every county judges name off the top of their head. Since the female was unable to respond, the white male stamped “DENIED” on her voting registration papers. This showed inequality because whites were not asked questioned when they registered to vote, therefore social workers come to play in this situation as social workers promote and help bring equality when it comes to deserving your civil rights.
Social workers work at every level whether the situation requires micro, mezzo or macro interventions (DuBois 68).

The micro level intervention that social workers participate in can be dealing with a loss in this case a loss of a black male who was supporting Martin Luther King in obtaining the right to vote. Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed by white officials and his family was devastated by his loss. The mezzo level intervention can be the community of Selma who actively supported the march to Montgomery to gain the basic right to vote. “In the 1960s, social activists brought the plight of racial groups to national attention and pressed for the passage of civil rights legislation” (DuBois 138). The macro level intervention can be seen as the whole nation of America gaining the right to vote via a legislation being passed by President Johnson. “Social workers have been in the vanguard of the civil rights movement for decades, advocating antidiscrimination legislation and ensuring that civil rights are central concerns of social work practice” (DuBois

133).
As mentioned by DuBois in Chapter 3, “Social workers consider any system as containing options for change and recognize that change in one system results in changes in other systems” (DuBois 68). When there is change being made at the micro level it can potentially effect the other systems. Martin Luther King believed that one step at a time, they would receive the right to vote and being treated equally. Although it took him 13 years leading the movement until his death in 1968, he was able to slowly make a change to receive the fundamental right to vote. In the movie, the President spoke that it was not just a “negro problem but an American problem”. This statement reflects that when there is a problem in the community, it goes beyond affecting just the members but can involve affecting the state and even the nation.
Overall, social work is a profession that leads the society in receiving social justice. Social workers are supporters and advocates for those facing inequality. Racism still occurs in America and social workers are the ones who advocate those that are facing this injustice. No one should feel lesser than another, after all we are all humans.