The Trials And Tribulations Between The March Trilogy Books And The Movie Selma

John Lewis has never let his 40+ arrest affect what he stands for. In Lewis’ book March, he tells his story of segregation in the 60’s and the events that shaped his life. From when he was a little kid, to an older adult, March displays Lewis deal with the segregation in the south, and the hard ships others endure. Although he experienced many events in his life, John Lewis used those events to build himself religiously and help others. Receiving his first bible, Jim Lawsons workshops, his decision not to go to college and Martin Luther King’s speech all helped him become who he is.

What does March 7th mean to you? On this significant day, hundreds descended to Selma, Alabama in a bid to secure voting rights for African Americans. These African Americans only ever asked for the simple right to vote and to be treated with equality compared to whites, but all they ever got in return, was disrespect. Blacks wanted to be treated like citizens, similar to anyone else with the opposite skin color. Because of this, in 1965, blacks who were not guaranteed voting rights marched and tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stand up and even demand for what they believed in. Although their efforts were great, local and state police stopped them before their march got too far. A few attempts later, the demonstrators made their way across the bridge. Blacks had to stop marching after 10 miles each day because they had 54 miles to go to complete their walk. This march for equal rights was such a huge issue that there was a total of 600 participants when they finally completed the walk! In fact, this didn’t just affect a few people, it affected any black woman, man, or even children too. For example, eleven year old Desiree Robertson carried an American Flag helping lead the group of marches down a rolling stretch of a highway. These people walked for their freedom and never gave up for what they believed in.

The happenings in Selma, Alabama during the year 1965, served as a catalyst to the Voting Rights Act, which eliminated any discrimination at the polls all over America, and the catalyst for these happenings in Selma was Jimmie Lee Jackson. The historical drama, Selma, tells the story of Selma, Alabama in 1965. It is not a documentary therefore, some details were changed, exaggerated or left out due to the fact that this is a historical drama. The movie, Selma, serves the purpose of showing the events in Selma and how they influenced the conclusion of the movie, the passing of the Voting Rights Act by Lyndon B. Johnson. This film is considered a drama therefore, some things are dramatized to compel the audience to feel a certain way, however,

In the book trilogy, March by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin. John talks about his life growing up and making a difference. These highlights of his life would make him develop into someone more important. He received a Bible from his uncle as a gift, the trip John took up to Buffalo was a realization of how different the northern and southern states were. Segregation didn’t exist in the north. Later, John met Jim Lawson and began attended his workshops about non-violent protesting, and lastly his first arrest. These highlights during his youth would become eye-opening to Lewis that what he was putting himself through to take down segregation in the south was a risk for his life to save future generations.

John Lewis has never let his 40+ arrest affect what he stands for. In Lewis’ book March, he tells his story of segregation in the 60’s and the events that shaped his life. From when he was a little kid, to an older adult, March displays Lewis deal with the segregation in the south, and the hardships others endure. Although he experienced many events in his life, John Lewis used those events to build himself religiously and help others. Receiving his first bible, Jim Lawson’s workshops, his decision not to go to college and Martin Luther King’s speech all helped him become who he is.

The marchers gathered at the Washington Monument before dawn as planned on August 28, 1963. At 11:30, 100,000 to 200,000 of them began marching towards the Lincoln Memorial singing “We Shall Overcome” (“The March on Washington” 12). At the memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered multiple speeches along with other African Americans about segregation and discrimination issues. During one of his speeches, King Jr. declared that “we will not hate you, but we cannot obey your unjust laws. Do to us what you will and we will still love you…But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience, that we will win you in the process” (“Negro Protest Movement” 507). This statement by King Jr. describes his plans of further nonviolent protesting against “unjust laws” to convince others of the civil rights movement’s cause. He furthers this statement and elaborates his ideas in his infamous speech, “I Have a Dream.”

Civil rights, a significant issue of the ‘60s, reached a climax in 1968 and hatched a novel approach racial strive. Even though Martin Luther King Jr. had waged a successful campaign of peaceful protests in US southern states, a growing number of younger activists began to feel that nonviolent tactics could not

Lewis starts his speech by expressing his defense for the march using the device of allusion that builds a strong argument by using logical appeal. He discusses the unfairness he and his fellow brothers have encountered. Lewis says, “While we stand here, there are students in jail on trumped-up charges. Our brother James Farmer, along with many others, is also in jail” (Lewis

The movie Selma is about 1965 campaign by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to protect the equal voting right for African-American citizens. So the main theme of this movie is that every citizen should have a right to vote and all citizens should have equal voting rights. This movie is likewise loaded with religious and profound themes in regards to the power of love, encounter with insidiousness and abhors, the power of confidence, the power of religious groups, boldness, and freedom. Selma demonstrates a significant occasion in current U.S. history and with remedies for its deception identifying with President Johnson, can upgrade a unit on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and additionally

The American Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and 1960s generated massive international following and controversy, which made the movement one of the most important in U.S. history. The movement’s legacy can still be felt today, with the positive aspects, such as voting rights to African Americans and wide spread desegregation of public facilities, still being felt in the United States, and in many similar models across the globe. Although there were many “battlegrounds” where civil issues were debated, many people who know of the movement today would argue that the movement’s heart was rooted in the Deep South, ironically where it could be argued that the mentality of people living in the area at the time were the most violently opposed to such civil rights. In contrast, those who championed the Civil Rights Movement chose the tactic of nonviolence, at least at first, as a tool to dismantle racial segregation, discrimination, and inequality. They followed models that Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists had commissioned, using principles of nonviolence and passive resistance. Civil rights leaders had understood that segregationists would do anything to maintain their power over blacks. So, in consequence, they believed some changes might be made if enough people outside the

In the book March, I learned more about the civil rights movement than I had known before. Things like Parchman Farm, the Freedom Riders, and using nonviolence to combat segregation. I now have a better appreciation for the civil rights movement, though I never took it for granted, I feel like I have a greater insight on the journey for equality. March is brutal, sad, empowering, brave and

President Johnson, who had intimate access to King, and as the film depicted, was weary in proposing a controversial. After spending a large amount of political capital on a Civil Rights Bill and a large tax reduction, Johnson wanted King to wait until it was politically appropriate for the president. Johnson argued that stirring controversy would perpetuate the issue and embarrass the administration in the process. King argued, however, that people of color were tired of waiting. In King’s, Letters from Birmingham Jail, he discusses the calls of other’s who tell him to “wait.” He argues “this ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never’” King goes on to say the black community has “waited for more than 340 years for [their] constitutional and God given rights.” MLK was determined to make a point in Selma, and create enough “tension,” to cause action. Determined to get his point across, and intent of garnering world wide attention, King gained support of clergy members, black and white allies from across the country. The first attempt at the march was unsuccessful; nearly 2,000 marchers were turned around by King at the Edmung Pettus bridge because King did not want to violate a judges orders. That night, a white clergyman, James Reeb, who supported the march was beaten and killed. Finally, after a federal court order to let the march proceed was granted,

The brutality from this event can be summarized by one marcher who was reported saying, “My God, we’re being killed.” This malevolent act sent the entire nation in an uproar, sparking riots in major US cites and even in Toronto. The protests and riots gained so much popular support as to gain the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declared that he “deplored the brutality.” King was also determined to march from Selma to Montgomery in order to present the governor with the proposal for voting rights and to continue fighting the oppression (“Central Point” 24).

The movie, "Selma," was an accurate picture of events that occurred in 1965. It followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he fought against the government in their chase to reject the “Black Americans” of their American rights. People knew that after blacks were still being denied their right to vote, still being discriminated from public places, and still being abused by white officers for no reason, and them not being annoyed for

In the movie Selma it shows on how the African-American community came together and organized plans to gain their equal voting rights. One of the African-American leader was Martin Luther King, Jr. He was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and one of his most famous plans was the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge which lead across a river into Selma. In today’s day and age we still see racial inequality just not on the same level as it was before.