Episode 4: Selma Lens on History

It’s hard to imagine a more currently relevant film than Selma, Ava DuVernay's 2014 drama about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the quest for voting rights for Black Americans. We’re in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, perhaps the biggest movement for civil rights in the US since the 60s. While police brutality against people of color has occurred for hundreds of years, the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, with the latter two being caught on video, have forced many Americans to confront it in a new way. We’re also in the middle of a very turbulent election season in which the issue of voter suppression has become increasingly important. While the Voting Rights Act did away with literacy tests and outright poll taxes, voter suppression, particularly of marginalized groups, still exists in many forms to this day.

For more information, go to lensonhistory.wordpress.com