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Rachel Goldfarb
Dr. McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric
18 February 2015
One Person With a Dream
In 1870, the fifteenth amendment granted African Americans voting rights. But come
1965, barriers were still in place to prevent African American participation in the polls. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. decided to take action and organized various marches from Selma to
Montgomery, demanding equal voting rights. On its surface, Selma is a chronicle of this African
American struggle to obtain voting rights. Deeper than the plot however, the film functions as a
means to humanize King, challenging the idealistic image often attributed to public leaders.
Selma calls to question the traditional idea of a public leader or hero. The film depicts
King as a regular, everyday guy. And yet, he is able to lead an entire movement. The popular
misconception that a leader must be a person of high rank, power, and/or authority exists among
a majority of the contemporary population. Kings portrayal in the film opposes this idea,
presenting leadership ability as independent of power and affluence. While the film occurs
across various settings, a significant portion takes place in the King household. King is
frequently presented in a relaxed, commonplace environment. And in this mundane setting, King
performs ordinary, familiar tasks. King is shown taking out the garbage, a menial job even
among chores. The audience sees King at the dinner table with his family, a relatable experience
to almost all viewers. Scenes like these, of King shaving and on the phone and in his pajamas,
work in conjunction to humanize his character and remove certain connotations from the idea of
a leader. This is not to say that King is not a man of great power. A viewer could easily watch

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Selma and object that King is far from a normal guy. In fact, the film begins with his acceptance
of the Nobel Peace Prize. Average people are not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But this in no
way is meant to detract from his portrayal as an ordinary person. Director Ava DuVernay
strategically preludes Kings acceptance speech with a scene of him getting ready for the
ceremony. He rehearses his speech while struggling with his ascot, ultimately requiring
assistance from his wife. This preparation scene reminds the audience that despite Kings
prominent leadership and public celebrity, he remains regular. King is an effective and
influential leader while maintaining his status as a normal person. King is ordinary; what he has
done is extraordinary. The message is clear: ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
The film demonstrates the cost of leadership through Kings personal sacrifice for the
sake of the movement. The image of a public leader is not often one of weakness or
vulnerability; a leader is usually regarded as tough and invincible. King, however, is visibly
weakened throughout the progression of the film. Concerning his physical demeanor, he is
constantly exhausted and growing increasingly weary. His face is permanently fatigued, with red
eyes underscored by tired bags. He appears to have lost stamina as the movement takes its toll
on him. Beyond this, King experiences sacrifice as he loses his right to privacy. The CIA bugs
his house, monitoring and recording his every action. In a moment of vulnerability, King calls
singer Mahalia Jackson and requests a song for inspiration and consolation. Even this harmless
phone call is monitored; King is not allowed one intimate moment without invasion from the
CIA. Additionally, Kings role in his family takes a back seat to his role as a leader in the
movement. The effect is evident as his wife, Coretta, experiences an internal conflict, weighing
the importance of her support of the movement versus the safety of her family. King is not
always present for his wife and kids at critical moments. His family lives in constant fear of his

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assassination. He receives government sponsored death threats against his children. King
endures all of this with a bigger picture in mind. His strength as a leader lies in his ability to
overlook present adversity for future success. This strength is exemplified during the second
march from Selma. The first march provokes a response of severe violence and trauma from the
Selma police force. The sheriff chooses to change his strategy the second time around. As the
line approaches, he demands his men stand down and allow the people to pass through. The
marchers expect to proceed across the bridge, victorious. But King, apprehensive, turns around
and retreats, giving them no choice but to follow. This decision is met with much scrutiny.
People demand his reasoning, calling him a coward, criticizing his leadership. King responds to
these objections, Id rather people be upset and hate me than be bleeding or dead. King
understands that as its leader, he has to give everything to the movement, even if the people he is
fighting for cannot appreciate or completely understand that.
Selma emphasizes a leaders necessity for a supporting cast. Without a group of
followers, a leader has no one to lead. Nonetheless, this group of followers is often overlooked,
especially when headed by a renowned leader like King. With success, the leader receives all the
credit, and with failure, all the blame. All leaders lean on their followers for support, but Kings
dependence on his supporters is greater than most. His nonviolent demonstrations require large
numbers to draw attention in order to make a statement. With Kings method, the more people,
the more powerfully the idea is communicated. In the film specifically, the marches are the main
points of protest and demonstration. A march, in order to be effective, requires a substantial
number of participants. If only ten or twenty people had attempted to march on Selma, it would
have had little to no impact. The power behind Kings strategy lies in his huge support system.
In the march scenes, the camera displays a seemingly endless line of people, extending way

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beyond the bounds of the screen, suggesting a massive number of participants. With assistance
from organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), King has a strong and widespread group
of supporters. He was easily able to persuade people to join the movement, and through his
rhetorical efforts, King built a community of discourse that enabled people to think and act with
unity to address a wide range of serious social problems (Herrick 23). King is praised for
building such a community, and rightfully so. But what people fail to mention is his tremendous
reliance on this very community. In the film, King sits out the first march and must delegate
leadership roles to various SCLC and SNCC members. The intentional inclusion of this passing
on of leadership in his absence is designed to call attention to Kings dependence on others. He
depends on them to step up and fill in for him. He cannot do it all on his own. DuVernay uses
mobile framing to emphasize this point. During the marches, the camera comes up close on the
faces of participants and pans across the individuals. The individual faces of the people
marching are shown and King is inserted among them, suggesting an equality of value. The
individuals that comprise a group are just as significant to a cause as the leader is. They are
often disregarded, but the film helps to remind the audience about the importance and power of
an individual. A leader would not be able to enact change without a band of supporters.
A major way Selma challenges the utopian idea of public leaders is through its
juxtaposition of Kings public image with the reality of his situation. When most people think of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they imagine a perfect hero: famous speeches, successful protests,
victory in the Civil Rights Movement. This idealistic idea of King has been constructed over
time and is now the norm, because once an idea has been thoroughly tested by a community or
society, it becomes part of what is accepted as known by that group (Herrick 21). However,

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Selma challenges this image of King. While the film does include scenes of King delivering
powerful speeches and igniting passion in crowds, they are paired with scenes of him struggling
to draft said speeches. King is shown working with a group of collaborators, discussing what
points to include, ensuring vital issues are discussed, uncertain about various aspects. People
generally fail to consider the effort behind composing these speeches and only reflect on Kings
powerful deliverance. King is also remembered for his success in peaceful protests and
nonviolent demonstrations. People tend to think of these as simple and effortless feats,
neglecting the considerable amount of strategy behind them. There is a reason Kings
demonstrations are so successful. The film highlights the planning processes behind such events.
They select Selma because they know Governor George Wallace, and can anticipate his reaction.
They know that the cameras follow will King, and surreptitiously orchestrate the media
broadcast of the police brutality during the first march. Things are not as effortless as they
appear on the surface. Furthermore, most people idolize King and regard him as infallible,
incapable of doing any wrong, and never faltering. However, the film makes apparent that he is
far from perfect. King is an extraordinary man who made an enormous and necessary impact on
the nation for African Americans. However, he is not perfect. He struggles with uncertainty and
doubt, unsure of himself, unsure of the movement. He is unfaithful to his wife and constantly
struggles in his relationship with her. These things do not take away from what he accomplished,
but history has turned him into an icon, having great symbolic meaning for many people and
perceived to represent universal concepts, emotions, and meanings. This image of King
produced in a specific culture, time, and place has universal meaning and the capacity to
evoke similar responses across all cultures and in all viewers (Sturken & Cartwright 37). The
icon that King has become sometimes impairs peoples ability to see the reality of his life.

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People have a tendency to idealize public leaders. They are larger than life, affecting
change at no cost, requiring no help. But the reality is that these public leaders and heroes are
regular people too. Selma helps demonstrate this point, humanizing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
and taking the audience beyond his perfect faade. King was a powerful leader who brought
about monumental change. But he was also a normal person. He had his flaws. He suffered
from the movement. He required assistance from others. King and all public leaders alike,
despite the illusion they maintain, are just regular people. Therefore, regular people have the
ability to lead and affect change. Everyday people can make a difference. It only takes one
person with a dream.

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Works Cited
Herrick, James A. "An Overview of Rhetoric." The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed.
nnnnnnBoston: Allyn and Beacon, 2001. 1-30. Print.

Selma. Dir. Ava DuVernay. Paramount Pictures, 2014. Film.

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
nnnnnnOxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.