Thursday, March 28, 2024

Oprah Winfrey Leads Hundreds in MLK Day Selma March (Pics)

Oprah Winfrey locks arms with some of the cast of the new movie "Selma" as they march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, in Selma, Ala.
Oprah Winfrey locks arms with some of the cast of the new movie “Selma” as they march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, in Selma, Ala.

*Oprah Winfrey and fellow actors from the movie “Selma” marched with hundreds in a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., one of many events around the nation ushering in Monday’s federal holiday for the slain civil rights leader.

Winfrey was joined on the front line with the film’s director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo, who played King in the movie.

“Selma” chronicled turbulent events leading up to the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the subsequent passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Winfrey played activist Annie Lee Cooper in the movie, which was nominated for two Oscars, in categories of best picture and best original song.

(L-R) Congresswoman Terri Sewell, Ava DuVernay, Common, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey, and John Legend address the audience at a special performance on January 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama
(L-R) Congresswoman Terri Sewell, Ava DuVernay, Common, David Oyelowo, Oprah Winfrey, and John Legend address the audience at a special performance on January 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama

A producer on the film, Winfrey praised the 1965 marchers for their courage in meeting fierce opposition on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma — scene of Sunday’s remembrance march.

“Look at what they were able to do with so little, and look at how we now have so much,” Winfrey said. “If they could do that, imagine what now can be accomplished with the opportunity through social media and connection, the opportunity through understanding that absolutely we are more alike than we are different.”

"Selma" producer and actress Oprah Winfrey participates in the ceremony to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama
“Selma” producer and actress Oprah Winfrey participates in the ceremony to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 18, 2015 in Selma, Alabama

White officers used clubs and tear gas on March 7, 1965 — “Bloody Sunday” — to rout marchers intent on walking some 50 miles to Montgomery, the Alabama capital, to seek the right for blacks to register to vote. King led a new march later that month that reached Montgomery, with the crowd swelling to 25,000.

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