Selma

In the early 1960s, many blacks in Dallas County, Alabama attempted to register to vote, defying intimidation, economic retaliation, arrests, firings, and beatings. Desperate to find a way to force the United States Government to enforce voting rights, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Oyelowo) staged protest marches in Selma, Alabama -- in violation of unjust court injunctions -- hoping to provoke a transformative confrontation. The marches resulted in a defining moment for the civil rights movement, as well as an affirmation of the right for large groups to petition one's government in public spaces.