Film ‘Selma’ helps celebrate MLK Day

It has been 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. led protesters in a march for justice from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol of Montgomery.

The stars of the movie ‘Selma’ honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a march from City Hall to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Thousands remembered one of the bloodiest struggles of the Civil Rights Movement.

The town of Selma then rolled out the red carpet. The cast and crew from the movie talked about what it was like to come back to the bridge and experience the energy of the people who once walked the bridge for equality.

“You could feel the spirit of hope,” said David Oyelowo who stars in the film. “You could feel the spirit of brokenness as well. And you know I just felt taken up with the feeling of just praying that we’ll see a brighter day.”

In the Coachella Valley, people marched to movie theaters to catch the hit movie. One of them — first grade teacher, Allison Calderwood.

“Often the days that we get off as educators are because of significant historical reasons and I always try to instill that in my students that it’s not just a day to sit home and play video games or have a barbeque but to really think about what the purpose of that day is,” she said.

Something people we talked to say the film did well.

“It’s so important because you realize what a leader was, he was able to motivate people in terms of a cause which is still being fought around the world and even in this country,” said moviegoer, Mario Sewell.

And Calderwood wasn’t the only teacher pushing students to see the movie.

“So we come, we watch the movie and we bring the ticket and we have to write up a report on how it relates to history and what we’re studying,” said student,Zachary Battles, who received extra cred for seeing the movie.

“I’d like to think that they are now living in a time where that doesn’t really matter anymore,” concluded Calderwood. “But they need to know the history and how things came to be and how unfair things used to be and how we seem to be getting on the right track to getting things where they should be.”