Selma, Lord, Selma

Selma, Lord, Selma is a 1999 American film based on true events that happened in March 1965, known as Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. The film tells the story through the eyes of an 11-year-old African American girl named Sheyann Webb (Jurnee Smollett). It premiered as a television movie on ABC on January 17, 1999.

Plot

Sheyann Webb meets Martin Luther King, Jr. one day while playing outside with her friends. They were told that Dr. King had come to Selma, Alabama to help the Negro people get voting rights. Sheyann learned many things from Dr. King. He taught her and her friend Rachel (Stephanie Zandra Peyton) to say when asked "Children what do you want, your answer should be freedom." He also taught her that no matter what the color of your skin is you should treat everybody right and children also had a battle to fight. Sheyann wanted to get involved so she skipped school to sneak into the meetings. One night a friend of Sheyann's named Jimmie Lee Jackson gets killed. To draw attention to the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, it was decided that a 54 mile march to the state capital of Alabama would take place. They would present a petition to Governor Wallace signed to protest that Negroes were not being treated fairly. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, Sheyann and the other African American protesters marched over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in route to Montgomery. Sheyann was the youngest person to attempt to march. On March 25, 1965, blacks were able to march. They called it bloody sunday. Then, on August 1965, President Johnson signed a bill for blacks to vote.

Cast