Welcome to Sojourn to the Past

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.

In 1965, a group of klansmen from Birmingham were sent to Selma, Alabama, with orders to keep the marchers under surveillance. At a stoplight, they noticed a green Oldsmobile with Michigan license plates driven by a white woman with a young, black male passenger. For the klansmen, the car and the passengers symbolized the two most despised aspects for the Civil Rights Movement: outsiders and race mixing.

Viola Liuzzo was a white mother from Detroit who had been shuttling marchers between Montgomery and Selma for three days. She had become known as a tireless and cheerful worker. By all descriptions, Viola was an extraordinary woman. At age 36, with five children at home, she had gone back to school to become a medical lab technician. She worked only for a few months and then quit in protest over the way female secretaries were treated. With the encouragement of her friend, she became one of the few white members of the National Assocation for the Advancement of Colored People. On March 7, 1965, Viola and her husband were watching the news when they saw the first clips of state troopers attacking Selma marchers. Tears rolled down Mrs. Liuzzo’s face and she brooded over the scene for days. Despite her husband’s concern, she got in her car and headed for Selma alone.

After the klansmen had spotted her and her young, black passenger they began to follow them. Surprisingly, Mrs. Liuzzo didn’t seem too concerned, and soon both cars were racing down the highway at 100 miles per hour. About 20 miles outside of Selma, the klansmen pulled up beside the car and one aimed his pistol out the window and shot Mrs. Liuzzo, shattering her skull. LeRoy Moton, her passenger, grabed the wheel and hit the brakes, and the car crashed into an embankment. When the klansmen walked over to inspect their work, Moton faked his death while they shone a light in the car. As soon as they left, Moton flagged down a truck carrying more civil rights workers, and although he was terrified, he was uninjured. Viola Liuzzo was dead.

After two trials (one being a hung jury where the klansmen were found not guilty), the three klansmen were eventually found guilty and each sentenced to 10 years in prison. This was the first conviction of murder in a civil rights case and was a landmark in southern racial history. It was also the first time the federal government successfully prosecuted a case of civil rights conspiracy.

 As intense a story as this is, we can look at it as a learning opportunity. It’s important that every day, in every way possble, we experience history in order to inspire the future.