By Cecil Williamson 

The Selma Times-Journal 

 

The movie “Selma” is a combination of historical inaccuracies, writer Paul Webb’s imaginations and Director Ava Duvernay’s fallacious re-creations. On Dec. 22, with a number of friends, one of whom had participated in the 1965 marches, I attended a showing in Atlanta of the recently released movie Selma. Mayor George Evans rightly has cautioned people to remember that the movie is “just a movie and not a documentary.”

The four British actors who portray Dr. Martin Luther King, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, President Lyndon Johnson and Gov. George Wallace give superb performances. They and the film will win awards. The movie will cause many people to visit our city and hopefully spend money here.

After viewing the movie, my friend who had been in the marches asked incredulously, “Where did they get their information?” From a dramatic beginning featuring the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on Sep. 15, 1963, which killed four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Carla Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair — and leaves the impression that the bombing took place in Selma to the closing credits after the movie which lists the mayor of Selma as “Mayor Robert Evans,” the movie demonstrates repeatedly that it is not a documentary. For example:

The movie shows Jimmie Lee Jackson, his mother and grandfather after a confrontation with state troopers, seated in a restaurant menus in hand. Troopers burst into the cafe, a melee ensues and Jackson is shot dead. The next scene is King talking to Jackson’s grandfather, Cager Lee, at the Dallas County Coroner’s Office— presumably where Jackson’s body is— and then King preaching at the funeral service for Jackson at Brown Chapel Church.  It is disappointing that Duvernay did not film at Brown Chapel.

The film’s use of a small Georgia church to represent Brown Chapel is an affront to those who participated in the 1965 marches, the church and the city. The fact is that Jackson was shot in Marion, not Selma, on Feb. 18, 1965 and following complications died eight days later on Feb. 26 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. There was no Dallas County Coroner’s office and morgue. King did visit Jackson at the Good Samaritan and did preach Jackson’s funeral.

The movie depicts Ms. Annie Lee Cooper, played by Oprah Winfrey, attempting to register to vote at the Dallas County courthouse. A single white register is behind a glass enclosure and denies her application when she is unable to name the probate judges for each of Alabama’s 67 counties. This is after she is able to recite the preamble to the Constitution and indicate that there are 67 counties in Alabama. Shortly, there is a confrontation between citizens attempting to register and Sheriff Jim Clark. The citizens are all pictured kneeling in the what would be Lauderdale Street when Clark wades into the middle of them billy club in hand. At that point, Cooper delivers the blow that knocks Clark to the ground.

The fact is that while Cooper and hundreds of other citizens were not permitted to register to vote, it was not by a single white registrar encased behind glass in a imaginary courthouse, which is in Georgia where most of the movie was filmed. The confrontation between Cooper and Clark did not take place amidst kneeling citizens being beaten in the middle of a street. There are numerous pictures in the Old Depot Museum in Selma showing citizens lined up on the sidewalk, waiting to go into the courthouse to register.

In the movie, Boston Unitarian minister James Reeb is beaten to death on the night of March 9, 1965 (the day of the turn around march) after leaving a well lit diner. King is informed of Reeb’s death that night.

The fact is Reeb and his fellow Unitarian ministers, Clark Olson and Orloff Miller, were passing by the Silver Moon Café when they were attacked. Reeb was taken first to Burwell Infirmity and then transported to Birmingham. On the way, Ace’s ambulance had a flat tire delaying needed surgery. Although Reeb had surgery, he died two days later in a Birmingham hospital. While it creates dramatic movie fiction for Jackson to be shot to death and die immediately and for Reeb to be beaten to death and die immediately, it is flawed history.

In the movie, the March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday marchers are shown marching in front of The Selma Times-Journal, across Broad Street and two by two on the left sidewalk of the Pettus Bridge.  Rather than being led by King, they are led by Hosea Williams and John Lewis.

The fact is the marchers came from the opposite direction than that shown in the movie and were walking abreast on the bridge. According to the emergency room log at the Good Samaritan Hospital, 56 people were treated for injuries at that facility as a result of the attacks. The most difficult myth to expose about Bloody Sunday (which the film does) is that King led the March 7 march. Though he had previously said he would led the march, King was convinced by SCLC leaders  to remain in Atlanta. That decision infuriated some SNCC field workers who condemned it as a betrayal of the local marchers.

Indicating that any publicity is good publicity, the circus mogul P. T. Barnum said “I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right.”

In the movie Selma, Duvernay, Webb and Oprah have spelled our name right. Regardless of the historical content or lack thereof, that spelling will bring many people to our city, which will help our economy. For that, I am appreciative.