The Nation: Lessons From ‘Selma’: It Takes a Movement
http://www.thenation.com/blog/194497/lessons-selma-it-takes-movement?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20%28NEW%29%20-%20Most%20Recent%20Content%20Feed%2020150108&newsletter=email_nation
Editors Note: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvels column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrinas column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-film-selma-portrays-more-than-dreamers/2015/01/05/257d00be-950f-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html
Katrina vanden Heuvel on January 8, 2015 - 1:12 PM ET
Director Ava DuVernays Selma is a riveting and powerful depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights struggle. This compelling film reveals the scope of Kings radical vision, the fierce opposition he faced and the conflicting currents that only this savvy movement politician had to navigate. It should sweep the Academy Awards.
The greatest testament to the films power is the controversy it has spawned. Defenders of Lyndon Johnson, several prominent historians and even Kings longtime ally Andrew Young have objected to its depiction of the president as being at odds rather than a co-conspirator with King.
The debate over the film eerily replays a telling chapter of the primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008. In the run-up to the South Carolina presidential primary, in which nearly half the voters would be African American, Clintontrying to draw a contrast between her experience and Obamas eloquenceargued that Dr. Kings dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964... It took a president to get it done. Naturally, this raised hackles throughout the African American community, leading Clinton to charge that the Obama campaign was deliberately distorting this.
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The conflicting perspectives reflect very different angles of vision. Dr. King and the courageous citizens who were putting their lives on the line in non-violent demonstrations were demanding action at the federal level. President Johnson and his predecessor John F. Kennedy, however sympathetic, were worried about sustaining a Democratic coalition still anchored by powerful Southern senators. Both felt pressured by the demonstrators. This wasnt a love fest. Attorney General Robert Kennedy authorized J. Edgar Hoovers FBIs wiretaps of King, which continued during Johnsons administration.
FULL story at link.