SPLC documentary screened across South on Voting Rights Act anniversary
The film about the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march encourages civic engagement as voter suppression laws take hold in many states.
As the Voting Rights Act turned 50, the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance documentary about the struggle for voting rights – Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot – was shown at free screenings across the South in recent days, providing a powerful reminder of the progress made and the work that remains to ensure all voters have access to the ballot box.
The 40-minute documentary, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer, was screened in Atlanta, New Orleans, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, yesterday. The screenings were the latest in a series by the SPLC to raise awareness about the importance of voting. More than 100 people viewed the film last week in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Another screening is set for tomorrow in Miami at the Miami-Dade Public Library System. More screenings of the film, which examines the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, are expected to be held throughout the year nationwide.
“Our film tells the true story of the forgotten heroes of the historic struggle for equality – the courageous students and teachers who helped launch the voting rights movement in Selma,” said Lecia Brooks, SPLC outreach director. “These community screenings remind viewers that the march for justice continues and that each of us can make a difference.”
Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot and its community guide are being offered free of charge to community groups across the country. The film can be previewed and ordered here for events such as voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote efforts and community screenings.
About 100 people gathered at the Selma Community Church to watch the film, described by one local teacher as “packed with information, fast-paced” and a film that “really holds your attention.”
Those attending included Hazel Chapman, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer featured in the film. Chapman spoke to the audience, reminding them that the work for voting reform is not done.
At the Civil Rights Memorial Center across the street from the SPLC office in Montgomery, residents signed up to vote as part of a voter registration drive.
In Atlanta, about 165 people watched the film at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was baptized and both he and his father were pastors. Henry Guilford, an SPLC staffer, shared with the audience the story of his grandmother, Dorothy Guilford of Montgomery, who walked to work every day for more than a year to support the Montgomery bus boycott.
“She was born in 1920 and despite poll taxes, literacy tests and other challenges to keep her from voting, she has never missed an election since she turned 19,” he said. “She is 94 now and is an inspiration for all of us to remember the power of voting. One vote can make a difference.”
Voting rights continues to be an important issue. The U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and states have enacted a series of voter-restriction laws that suppress the votes of minorities.
Voter turnout also is a challenge, with it hitting a 72-year low during the mid-term elections of 2014. Young people were only 13 percent of those who cast ballots.
The SPLC is also distributing the documentary and a companion teaching kit free to educators across the country. Teachers can order the film, intended for grades six and up, here.
The film is the eighth classroom documentary produced by the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance project. Four previous films have been nominated for Academy Awards, and two – A Time for Justice and Mighty Times: The Children’s March – have won the Oscar in the short documentary category.
