Selma’s message relevant to the UK in 2015

Our thanks to the US Embassy for hosting the private viewing of Selma last night, and asking OBV to lead the event. As a result, a number of the invitees were OBV guests, and Baroness King of Bow and Simon Woolley made up the panel, chaired by Afua Hirsch, which discussed the film and took questions from the audience.

The film was outstanding, with a quite mesmerising performance by David Oyelowo, who quite simply, became Martin Luther King. This almost magical taking on of King’s voice, body, face and mind has left a lot of people wanting to know why Oyelowo hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar.

The whole cast was outstanding, but a special mention must be made of Oprah Winfrey’s convincing portrayal of the dignified and defiant Annie Lee Cooper, who in January 1965, stood in line for hours outside the Dallas County Courthouse to register to vote until Sheriff Jim Clark ordered her to vacate the premises, prodding her with a baton. Cooper retaliated by hitting the bullying lawman. She was then assaulted by Clark’s deputies and imprisoned. On her release she immediately became a leading supporter of Martin Luther King.

The other standout performance is that of Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B Johnson, and indeed the relationship between LBJ and King is central to the film’s narrative. Some commentators believe the film is harsh on its portrayal of Johnson as a reluctant convert to the civil rights’ cause, but this version of Johnson’s vacillations and insincerity is convincing, particularly as it allowed King to play on the President’s insecurities and vanity.

In the end, Johnson – a Southern Democratic and thus unlikely to be sympathetic to black advancement - pushed through the Voting Rights Act because he didn’t want to be remembered as a bigot in the mould of Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), and because King had brilliantly mobilised white liberals and white churches leaders to flock to Selma to join the march to Montgomery. Before that LBJ’s main motivation for the demonstrators to leave the White House was so ‘Ladybird’ Johnson could get some sleep. This the President who, a few weeks later, purloined the phrase ‘We Shall Overcome’ when grandiloquently announcing his support for Black voting rights in the South.

Simon Woolley, opening the discussion, stressed the relevance of having the vote to change injustice and create a fairer society in the UK in 2015 just as the civil rights movement understood that without the vote in the southern states 50 years’ earlier, there would never be justice or equality for the black man. 

Baroness King of Bow – Oona King – believed that the May General Election could result in a hung Parliament with UKIP sharing power, and gave the stark warning that people should register to vote now, before it’s too late, because should UKIP be in a position of power, ‘people of colour will regret not voting.’

This is a message that can’t be stressed enough. Those in the BME community that haven’t registered to vote should do so as soon as possible – the OBV eXpress campaign bus will enable people to vote online when it visits cities in the UK in February and March.

Watch this space!

Paul Hensby