The University organized a private student screening of the film Selma, which was followed by a discussion panel with Provost Robert C. Lieberman, at The Charles Theatre on Wednesday. The panel also featured history professor Nathan Connolly, who is co-director of the Program on Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch.
The group engaged in an interactive discussion on the history of the Civil Rights movement.
The Black Student Union (BSU) and the Student Government Association (SGA) co-hosted the event.
Audience members were invited to ask questions to the panelists and comment on the film. Amidst the discussions, questions about current events such as those in Ferguson, Mo. and the balance of politics, as well as conspiracy theories, were posed to the room.
Phillip Montgomery, the BSU president, spoke about the movie’s relevance in light of today’s racial issues, including the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
“We must remember that racism is not tied to one place; it is everywhere,” Montgomery said.
University President Ronald J. Daniels also spoke briefly, praising the social metamorphosis from Selma’s time period to the present day, and passed the responsibility for continuing social progress to the students.
“It is a remarkable comment of the evolution the country has seen for the past fifty years,” Daniels said. “It’s not hard to see how to see how acutely we need people like you to provide, provoke, and inspire change. Your engagement in this community will help this institution. The battle is in our hands, the road ahead is not altogether a smooth one.”
Selma — nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Song for “Glory” — was directed by Ava DuVernay, whose own father was involved in the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Ala.
The film chronicles the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., played by David Oyewolo, and his allies in the historical peaceful protest march from Selma, Ala. to Montgomery in 1965. This was a milestone in the events that eventually culminated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, securing equal voting rights for all.
The panel started by discussing the basic historical context of the film.
“What you see is the last dying grasp of segregation in the South,” Lieberman said.
Branch claimed that despite the achievements of the civil rights movement, progress toward equality for African-Americans has backtracked.
“Since [the civil rights movement], I would say that the white people present are great beneficiaries,” Branch said. “There have been new rights for women, new rights for the disabled, rights for the gays. History, to some respects, has been going backwards for black people, as in the issue of Ferguson.”
Branch related the civil rights movement to Ferguson by explaining the complexities and inner politics of a social movement.
“You never know something that makes [the movement] really grow — that’s how a movement starts,” Branch said. “There were three marches out of Selma, not just one. Movements are really complex, but it starts when citizens start asking about issues.”
Connolly agreed and discussed the importance of local politics.
“The first thing is to appreciate how complex local elections are,” he said. “One of the things civil rights did so well is [to] take something local and to make it national.”
Connolly also examined voting power and how it impacted criminal justice.
Other topics that were debated included disenfranchisement and increasing youth voter apathy.
Branch said that in the film, the seemingly very strained relationship between King and President Johnson was exaggerated for entertainment value.
“Not to say there weren’t fights, but Johnson was collaborating with King a little more,” Branch said.
Many historical documents, including documents detailing discussions between Johnson and King and FBI files about King, are available to Hopkins students via online archives.
Students were excited not only to see the film, but also to be part of the discussion. Sophomore International Studies major Lucy Delgado, who will travel to Selma on an Alternative Spring Break trip with JHU Campus Ministries to study the history of the civil rights movement, said she was glad that Hopkins was hosting this event.
“We wanted to see Selma for a while, and we thought it was a great opportunity that Hopkins was offering, especially the education possibility that comes with it,” Delgado said.
The event, which was announced in an email from SGA Executive President Janice Bonsu, was attended by a wide range of students.
Joan Golding, a freshman majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, expressed her excitement to hear the panel.
“We don’t really hear much about [social issues] anymore, so I wanted see what it was about,” Golding said.
Lieberman said that the University’s hope in planning this event was to engage with students on controversial topics.
“It was really President Daniels’s idea,” Lieberman said. “After seeing the movie, we thought that it would just be a great idea to bring the community together to watch the film and think a little about the issues.”
Lieberman said that he was thrilled by the student turnout.
“The seats were filled, and people were paying attention, and I hope people really think about [the socials issues],” he said.
Based on the large turnout, Lieberman looked forward to planning another similar event.
Bonsu said that tickets sold out in a day and a half, and many students joined a large waitlist.
She said that she was pleased to see such an enthusiastic student response.
“We got emails from students who couldn’t get tickets but just wanted to hear the panel, students who could have chosen to watch the movie at their own time in their own setting but chose to come together,” Bonsu said.
