Welcome to Sojourn to the Past

After an international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, it was announced on Sunday that Soundtrack for a Revolution was one of the nominees on a 15-film short list for the Best Documentary Film category consideration for the annual Academy Awards.

Music featured in the work includes musical artists the Roots, the Blind Boys of Alabama, John Legend, and Wyclef Jean.  And the film tells the story of the civil rights movement, focusing on how music played a role in the struggles.

Directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman have partnered on the project.

As we tweeted last Wednesday, James Armstrong, the Birmingham barber and Civil Rights leader who iconically carried the American flag to lead the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, has died of heart failure.  The United States Civil Rights community has truly lost one of its pivotal, historic members in his passing.

James Armstrong, pictured here at the 40th anniversary re-enactment of the Selma Voting Rights March to Montgomery, known as Bloody Sunday.

One of his most notable and long-standing actions was that Armstrong was the catalyst in initiating the 1957 class-action lawsuit to integrate area schools after wanting to enrolls his sons in the all-white Graymont Elementary school.  Speaking to his dedication to the cause, and to his persistence in the fight for equal rights, when interviewed at one of the anniversary marches that he regularly attended in Selma that commemorate the now-famous march, he’s quoted as saying “I’ll keep coming back as long as I can walk.  One day, I may even come in a wheelchair.”

Armstrong was a WWII army veteran – having been drafted to fight at age 18 – but his greatest fight may have been right here on American soil.  He ran his own business, the barber shop that boasted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a loyal customer, was beneficial to conduct sit-ins and other demonstrations without fear of retribution from an employer.

Perhaps his biggest disappointment – per Shirley Gavin Floyd, the business manager for the Civil Rights Activist Committee in Birmingham – was that he had to cancel his trip to DC this past winter for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, whose election he saw as a culmination of his efforts.

Back in September, we wrote a blog about Jerry Mitchell and his amazing story about how he’s been devoting much of his career to tirelessly reporting on unresolved Civil Rights crimes from decades past.  For said work, he was this year awarded one of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius Grants’.

In case anyone missed it, we just wanted to make sure we made mention of his appearance on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report last month.  This was just absolutely wonderful exposure for the results of so many years of hard work, due to the humorous, tongue-in-cheek pundit’s large national following.

Watch the video online at Colbert Nation:

Director Lee Daniels

Coming off of directing Precious, what could very possible be an Oscar-contender this year, it’s been released that director Lee Daniels is in “advanced negotiations” to direct Selma – a film about the 1965 march in Dallas County Alabama that essentially embodies the height of the Civil Rights movement.  While Precious was based on a Novel – Sapphire’s “Push” – the Selma script is the product of Paul Webb (who has long-been involved on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln which is still not  yet finished).

As if you need even more reasons to excitedly anticipate this project, the film’s producer is Christian Colson, who most recently won an Oscar for the international stand-out film Slumdog Millionaire.  Additionally, Plan B – the production company belonging to Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner – is coming onto the project to co-produce.  Though, no cast or budget has been released yet.

From the people involved alone, this is a work that is bound to be as impressive as it is moving.  As the guys at Collider note, “It doesn’t take a genius to tell this project is being set up for some serious awards consideration in 2010 should it complete production and hit theaters next year.”  They continue that it should, “have some support not only because of its subject matter, but because of the success of Precious both critically and at the box office.”

Here’s to hoping that a film that caliber of Slumdog generates not only attention from the press, but is an inspiration to high-profile celebrities and viewers alike to get involved in the continuing fight for equal Civil Rights for all.

After delaying the announcement an additional 24 hours, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today in Los Angeles that the current in-house Deputy Chief Charlie Beck will replace Chief William Bratton. During Bratton’s service of seven years in the position, crime decreased and he is also credited with improving race relations within the city.

The early responses to the nomination are positive from many, including the likes of other city officials.  Sheriff Lee Baca is quoted saying, “We have had a successful working relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department for many years, and we anticipate that partnership will continue under new Police Chief Charlie Beck.”

LA Times Opinion columnist Tim Rutten writes:

The mayor’s choice to lead the LAPD is committed to reform and has a strong support from civil rights activists and Latino, African American and immigrant leaders in the community.

The positive initial responses from key people in the city, as well as the supportive sentiments from those leaders representing many diverse factions of the city, are early indicators that Deputy Chief Beck will continue work on the track that Chief Bratton started – aiming for strong enforcement, while protecting the civil rights of the city’s residents.

Charlie Beck is a 32-year veteran on the LAPD force, who built relationships with many of the activists and leaders that supported him during his project of the rehabilitation of LAPD’s formerly-chaotic Rampart Division, as well as while he ran the department’s South Los Angeles operations.