(ThyBlackMan.com) For those of you who have seen the movie Selma, or intend to watch it on cable or who would just like to know what the film was about, here is some background information on the Civil Rights Movement, the players in the drama and some food for thought…
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (1955 – 1965)
The 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, outlawing all forms of segregation, set the stage. The 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, led by 25 year old Dr. Martin Luther King, in which the Black citizens in Alabama’s capital city refused to ride the buses until they were integrated, was the opening act of the civil rights movement. Dozens of highly organized protests throughout the South followed in the next 10 years. Most significant were those in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and the marches in Selma, Alabama in 1965. The former resulted in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the latter led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Civil Rights Act firmly committed the federal government to enforcing, even at the point of armed intervention, the ending of segregation throughout the nation. At the time, the US was competing with Russia for the allegiance of the newly independent countries of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Scenes of white police officers and citizens beating people for demanding their rights being broadcast worldwide, forced the federal government to protect the demonstrators and enforce the law. Throughout the movement many Blacks, and their white supporters, were beaten or killed. For example, after the successful Birmingham demonstrations, a bomb 
was thrown into a Black church killing four little girls and wounding many. King won the Nobel Peace Prize after the Birmingham campaign, during which, while in jail, he wrote a beautiful, poignant letter rebuking the white clergymen of Birmingham who accused him of leading demonstrations that led to violence.
THE PLAYERS IN SELMA
After 10 years of struggle, the unrelenting, ever present, deadly danger took its toll on the King family. And the young college students in the movement were drifting away from King, and non-violence, toward Malcolm X and the idea of self-defense and fighting back. Pres. Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) saw King as an asset, in his leadership of the movement, fearing it would otherwise be led by men like Malcolm X. However, LBJ was quite irritated by King’s insistent demands that he do more. In the Selma struggle King was fiercely opposed by Gov. Wallace of Alabama, along with the mayor of Selma and the local police chief. Meanwhile, FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, consistently urged LBJ to take drastic action against King. If that were not enough, at this very moment, King’s marriage began to unravel. Selma is the powerful, unforgettable tale of how all these circumstances and determined individuals came crashing together at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Slavery ended in 1865, but it was not until 100 years later that the last vestiges of legally sanctioned segregation were obliterated. Today, 50 years later, we face a new scourge, mass incarceration. The prison population has increased more than tenfold and the majority of those being sent to jail are Black or Latino. The entry point for this “prison industrial complex” is the differential, racially motivated enforcement of the law and police harassment of Black and Latino young males. Just as legally sanctioned segregation replaced slavery, discriminatory enforcement of the law is replacing legally sanctioned segregation. President Obama has consistently been urged to bring charges for civil rights violations against police officers who, though cleared by local courts, are seen by many as having committed serious crimes. Just as LBJ was pressed to the wall to take action against local authorities, Obama is facing demands that he do the same. How did LBJ handle the situation? How is Obama handling things today? Who performed better?