‘Selma’ Cast March to Honor MLK and Original Selma Marchers
The stars of the Oscar-nominated film Selma, marched with thousands of people on Sunday in the Alabama town of the same name honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The crowd crossed the bridge where the late iconic civil rights leader led a nonviolent demonstration that helped on the path to civil rights.
Oprah Winfrey, a producer and actress for Selma, joined director Ava DuVernay, actor David David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and rapper Common, who also had an acting role in the film. Participants marched from Selma City Hall to the city’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by officers in 1965.
“Look at what they were able to do with so little, and look at how we now have so much,” Winfrey said, according to NBC News. “If they could do that, imagine what now can be accomplished with the opportunity through social media and connection, the opportunity through understanding that absolutely we are more alike than we are different.”
Common and John Legend performed their Oscar-nominated song “Glory” from the film as marchers reached the top of the bridge.
Continuing to honor the story of the Selma march, Paramount Pictures, the film’s distributor, hosted two free screenings of the film Monday for the general public at the Selma Walton Theater.
Paramount also announced last week that 275,000 middle and high school students would receive free tickets to see the film in 25 locations across the U.S., including Los Angeles.
“We are proud to be a part of this extraordinary effort to bring this poignant and timeless American story to the diverse students of Los Angeles,” said Debra Martin Chase, chief executive of Martin Chase Productions, and T. Warren Jackson, senior vice president and associate general counsel and chief ethics officer of DirecTV, which organized the efforts in Los Angeles.
Selma is in theaters now.
(Photo Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
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