Selma To Montgomery Analysis

In 1987, PBS started airing a fourteen-hour documentary series on the civil rights movement called Eye on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement. The purpose of this series was to inform the public about the civil rights movement from 1954 -1985. In episode six, “The Bridge to Freedom” the series turns it focus onto Selma, Alabama right before the death of Lee Jackson. The documentary which is based on primary sources including both images and interviews of SLCC leaders, SNCC leaders, personal friends of Martin Luther King Jr., supporters of segregation, and television reporters give a broad over view of the events in Selma from a plethora of perspectives.

Paula T. Maury a Professor of Sociology at Siena College has a specialization in race relations and research methods. His article, “ The Most Righteous White Man in Selma: Father Maurice Ouellet and the Struggle for Voting Rights,” focuses on the affects of Southern Catholics on the civil rights movement. Maury’s supports his thesis thought the study of primary documents relating to Maurice Ouellet life and actions during the march from Selma. He believes that through the study of Ouellet’s life historians can understand the importance of the civil rights movement on the Southern catholic minority.

King. The movie only shows two of the three marches but still captures how African Americans would do whatever it takes for them to have the right to vote. The second march is constructed and clergy members show, whites, and other people coming to help support in the walk to Montgomery, Alabama. Once again they were met at the end of the bridge with local law enforcement waiting but instead of being attacked the trooper withdraw. Instead of continuing the march, the marchers all stop on the middle of the bridge and peacefully kneel down and begin to pray and Dr. King decides to turn around and head back to Selma.

This is a picture of the march in Harlem promoting the march in Selma. The march in Harlem was a demonstration to show how many people wanted equality. So how many roads must a man walk to be called a man? These people are walking roads for a race to be called man, not to be treated like animals, to be treated like a man.

From 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had takes a series of protests to strive for equal voting rights in Alabama, but due to opposition from local police, progress was slow. In 1965, King came to Selma to support local civil rights activists. During a peaceful protest on February 17th 1965, a local resident called Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot dead by the Alabama State Troopers. This fueled the famous march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7th 1965. Led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis, about 600 non-violence protesters confronted state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

In reaction to the chaos, eight Alabama clergymen published a public statement asking for the citizens of both races to remain peaceful and live together in an orderly manner. When Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist from Atlanta, Georgia who was currently in the Birmingham City Jail for parading without a permit, saw this letter from the clergymen, he sent a reply in which he addressed the flaws in their argument and explained his reasoning for being in Birmingham. The world we live in today would not be possible if it were not for the determination and passion of Civil Rights activists like him. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. appeals to the emotions of multiple audiences of 1963, as well as current audiences of 2014, by using meticulous diction, repetition, and vivid imagery to demonstrate his passion for the movement

Once MLK Jr. came into Birmingham, he and Bull Connor were constantly in conflict. It was, in fact, Bull Connor who arrested MLK Jr. which led to the writing of “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” After an injunction, that forbid public leaders of the Civil Rights Movement from promoting or participating in demonstrations, was acquired by Connor, MLK Jr. continued with a planned demonstration on the next day which resulted in MLK Jr.’s arrest (Tiefenbrun 265). While in jail, MLK Jr. was secretly brought a published piece in the local newspaper. This piece, “Call for Unity,” was a statement from eight distinguished religious leaders of Alabama; the piece berated the civil rights movement in Birmingham as “‘unwise and untimely’ and a provocation to hatred and violence” (Westbrook 22).

On March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, the first of three Civil Right marches took place on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The purpose of these peaceful marches was to protest the discriminatory voter registration practices that kept African-American citizens in Alabama from voting. As the peaceful protesters crossed the bridge, they were greeted by Alabama state troopers, who instructed them to end the protest immediately; when the protesters refused, the state troopers unleashed a barrage of attacks. Protesters were attacked by police dogs, beaten with clubs, and had their eyes stung by tear gas; all of which, were caught on camera, as activists asked that the march be publicized-not knowing that it would become violent. This event came to be known as “Bloody Sunday”.

The graphic memoir, March, is a biography about Congressman John Lewis’ young life in rural Alabama which provides a great insight into lives of black families in 1940s and 50s under Jim Crow and segregation laws. March opens with a violent march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which the gruesome acts later became known as “Bloody Sunday,” during this march, 600 peaceful civil rights protestors were attacked by the Alabama state troopers for not listening to their commands. The story then goes back and forth depicts Lewis growing up in rural Alabama and President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. This story of a civil rights pioneer, John Lewis, portrays a strong influence between geography, community, and politics. The correlation between these pillars of March is that they have to coexist with other in order for John Lewis to exist that the world knows today.

King wrote to New York Times, “This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than they are on the voting rolls.” (Klein 1). The National Guard helped them on the last march. No police officers could turn them back, and they couldn 't beat them in front of the National Guard.

One blazing hot, summer day on August 28, 1963, about a quarter of a million people, black and white alike, showed up for a peaceful march in Washington D.C. The march included walking from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln memorial. Passionate about civil rights, these people wanted to peacefully get legislature to give them the freedom that they rightfully deserve. They wanted to have non-segregated schools, protection against police cruelty, equality among workers, and a number of other rights. (Ross)

After a fifty mile fight, Selma to Montgomery, African Americans finally reached the finish line, and voting was achievable for all. It was not easy though. After 250 years of slavery the civil war made everyone free. The reconstruction followed, in efforts to make things equal for everyone, but Plessy v. Ferguson was a setback. It started the “separate but equal” concept, and life was segregated for 60 years.

The scene begins with the drawing of straws to determine which man will lead the front of the pack as the group walks over the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama. While the interaction is casual, the scene provides a form of warning to viewers unfamiliar with the historical context of the film. The warning translate to: there is danger ahead and every single person knows this to be so. The next image shown in the scene is the large number of people lined up in pairs, ready to cross the bridge. The colors in the scene are vibrant,despite their bland shades.

There have been many movements in the United States in which African Americans have been the focal point for example the Selma March, the March on Washington, the civil rights movement, and even today the Black Lives Matter movement. Those movements have had a significant impact on the United States and still play a part in today’s society. Those movements still play a part in today’s society because without those movements there wouldn’t be a Black Lives Matter because African Americans wouldn’t have the courage to stand up a fight for their rights if it wasn’t for Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, or the many other activists that stood up for African-American rights. Selma and the March on Washington share a big relationship to the Black Lives Matter and they are just as important to the civil rights movement.

Unbenounced to her, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man ignited one of the largest and most successful mass movements in opposition to racial segregation in history. At a time when African Americans experienced racial discrimination from the law and within their own communities on a daily basis, they saw a need for radical change and the Montgomery bus boycott helped push them closer to achieving this goal. Unfortunately, much of black history is already excluded from textbooks, therefore to exclude an event as revolutionary to the civil rights movement as this one would be depriving individuals of necessary knowledge. The Montgomery bus boycott, without a doubt, should be included in the new textbook because politically