Historical Accuracy Of The Movie Selma

Selma is very historically inaccurate in its portrayal of the characters, events, and omissions of some groups involved with the campaign in Selma, Alabama, to secure voting rights for black citizens. In the movie Selma, Martin Luther King ( David Oyelowo) advocates for the rights of black citizens to vote, his actions are not welcomed and are despised by the upper class people. King goes through many struggles in the fight to obtain this right, along his journey he accomplished the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by president Johnson.

The characters portrayed in this film, Martin Luther King played by David Oyelowo , Coretta Scott King played by Carmen Ejogo, and President Lyndon B. Johnson played by Tom Wilkinson were scripted and

In the film of Selma King marches with a much larger crowd than usual having many other people along with clergymen and men of different races. Although this march was historically accurate taking place at the same site of Bloody Sunday at Selma before the march was passed by the Judge Frank Minis Johnson members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked three of the white ministers, Selma only mentioning two men killed that day. This case was opened by the FBI in order to find out the truth on what actually happened, in the film it is only show where two men are killed but actually there are three people it was a woman that was left out her name was Viola Gregg Liuzzo. Liuzzo was killed because of her participation in the civil rights movement for blacks and their right to vote, Liuzzo was the only white woman activist to participate in the movement she was killed by the KKK when transporting a black man to Selma. Although the film correctly depicted the scenes the settings and events of the movie parts were neglected by obstructing important characters; leaving out a woman who was as noble as Liuzzo and her role in changing history itself made this film historically

Depicted in the film was only the roles of African American’s and their hardships of fighting for the rights that they believed were their very own god given rights which was to vote, but what they did not show was the Jewish allies and also some white allies who aided King and others in their movement for peace and equality. In 1971 Jewish man Joe Levin founded the SPLC which was built and made to fight against racial justice and also against domestic violence, Levin came up during the era of the civil rights movement from there he eventually joined the act. Having being apart of this movement the Ku Klux Klan felt threatened by his acts harassed him and burned a 12-foot cross on the lawn of his Jewish fraternity in college, never experiencing this before made Levin think and process his actions and motivations. Levin was frightened, but his hard work for civil rights and the persecution of people who did wrong just because of one’s race continued on, King stating that their helped was not dismayed and was very welcomed on his movement into racial tensions ending in this