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Timothy Machasio
Professor Erin Dietel-McLaughlin
WR13300 Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric
23 February 2014
Selma Now and Then: Civil Service Culpability
Selma is a 2015 movie that narrates a series of protests in response to President Lyndon
Johnsons reluctance to institute legislation that would allow for unencumbered black voting
registration primarily in the southern region of the United States. The movie retells the story
behind the enfranchisement of African Americans by focusing on the planning and execution of
marches both within Selma and from Selma to Montgomery (the capital of the state of Alabama),
and the non-violent techniques employed by protesters. These non-violent protest techniques are
sharply juxtaposed with the ruthless police comportment that accompanied them. Selma explores
the historical circumstances behind the eventual proposition by President Lyndon Johnson to
institute the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to combat racial discrimination in voting.
Selma was released in January 2015 in anticipation of the 50-year anniversary of the
Selma marches that redefined of the place of African Americans in the countrys political
landscape. It was, however, filmed in 2014 a year tainted, more so unlike the ones before it,
with cases of police brutality and harassment that were thought to disproportionately target the
African American community. The 2014 cases of police brutality, and the ones before them,
thereby provided a rhetorical situation (Bitzer 6) and created a contemporary context for the
movies overarching subject matter the denial of fundamental rights to African Americans, and
the culpability of the civil service in facilitating it. Rhetoric, as defined by James Herrick, is the

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intentional practice of effective symbolic expression. Selma, by facilitating contemporary
discourse through its audio-visual rendition of historical events, is therefore a rhetoric medium.
Selma depicts systemic patterns of bureaucracy, negligence, unprofessionalism,
conspiracy and violence within institutions of the American civil service that were intended to
hinder the enfranchisement of African Americans. The use of rhetoric tools such as vivid
cinematographic dialogue, enhanced through the employment of filming and editing techniques,
seeks to draw attention to modern-day patterns of such behavior that are directed towards African
Americans the entire citizenry by extension. The use of music that draws influences from both
Soul and Hip-Hop, music genres discernibly popular in the 1960s and today respectively, at the
films conclusion seeks to draw attention to disproportionate African American oppression by
civil service institutions, most notably the police, that still exists in modern-day America.
Dialogue, a rhetorical tool, is an essential tool in portraying electoral registrars, members
of the civil service, as individuals who unwarrantedly frustrated and stifled the voting
registration process for African Americans. By allowing characters in the historical setting of
Selma to speak for themselves, the directors of the movie allow their target audience to form
perceptions of them and evaluate their situations relative to their own ethics. In an inspired scene
in Selma Annie Lee Cooper, an African American, is rudely called up to the registration desk by
an electoral registrar. Upon availing herself, the registrar beleaguers her with orders like recite
the constitutions preamble and (tell me) how many county judges (there are) in Alabama the
latter order to which he appends a decree to name them. Upon her inability to do as commanded,
Annie Lee Cooper is denied her constitutional right to vote. The issuance of nonsensical,
irrelevant orders serves to illustrate the deliberate effort by electoral registrars to stop African
Americans from voting. The juxtaposition of the registrars diabolic flamboyance and Annie Lee

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Coopers meek submission to his unconscionable demands, as made evident through their verbal
exchange, further serves to emphasize the powerlessness of individual African Americans and
their inability to fight against an unfair system. Ultimately, viewers are left to reflect on the
situation at hand and conclude, on their own, its intended message that electoral registrars
unfairly denied African American the right to vote. Selmas use of a rhetoric tool, dialogue,
therefore plays a critical social role in making determinations about what is right. (Herrick
21). Annie Lee Cooper obtains contemporary relevance as a symbolic representation of presentday African Americans who are unfairly targeted, sidelined and harassed by the American civil
service especially within the police establishment.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the civil service portrayed in Selma
through the character of John Edgar Hoover, its director, is shown to be yet another institution
that predominantly subdued the movement for African American enfranchisement by unethically
subjecting major figures of the revolution to surveillance and attempting to either muffle or
incapacitate them. The use of captions, dialogue, as well as camera angles that capture John
Edgar Hoovers body language, are essential in bolstering his characterization. During a
conversation with President Lyndon Johnson about Dr. King, John Edgar Hoover says, Mr.
President, you know we can shut men with power down. Permanently and unequivocally. A
strategic silence follows, before John Edgar Hoover makes yet another suggestion, We can go
with the wife. We know there is tension in the home already. We can weaken the dynamic.
Dismantle the family. A close-up of John Edgar Hoovers face follows, and is immediately
succeeded by footage from Martin Luther Kings home. At this juncture a caption, accompanied
by the characteristic sound produced by a typewriter, is concurrently displayed on the screen. It
reads King returns to his Atlanta residence. C. King and children present. 01:24 PM.

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LOGGED. The caption gives viewers a certainty that Martin Luther King is indeed being
surveyed, and reveals the possible source of the piece of information John brings to the President
pertaining the problems in Dr. Kings marriage as well as the lewd sex tape suggesting a
relationship between Dr. King and another woman that is sent to his wife, Coretta King, later on
in the movie. The dialogue between John Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Johnson reveals
the Federal Bureau of Investigations nefarious acumen established to harass activists agitating
for legitimate causes. The close-up of John Edgar Hoovers face shows a resoluteness,
cunningness and relentlessness to do whatever it takes to stop an entirely legitimate cause. Yet
the caption further demonstrates how impossible it is to avoid the Federal Bureau of
Investigations omnipresent gaze. The sequencing of the scenes, as in the aforementioned
instance, embody what Judith Lancioni refers to as the relationship from shot to shot and
rhythm of cutting from which viewers construct meaning (109). It gently nudges viewers
closer and closer still to concluding for themselves the FBIs role in impeding the movement for
African American enfranchisement in the 1960s. The theme of government-sponsored
surveillance of American citizens by institutions of the civil service, at a time when the National
Security Agency was being criticized for unethical surveillance techniques, sought to depict the
legitimacy of the ongoing debate.
Selma also implicates presidential and gubernatorial administration as civil institutions
that knowingly forestalled African American enfranchisement. This is achieved primarily
through the characters of George Wallace, the Governor of the State of Alabama during the civil
rights movement, and President Lyndon Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. When
asked by President Lyndon Johnson about why he is reluctant to institute unencumbered African
American voting, he says, Because you can never satisfy them. First is the front seat of the bus,

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next is take over the parks then its distribution of wealth without work. His assertions are
premised on a logical fallacy, and he does not substantiate them using reasoned facts. His
drooping intonation and manner of speech suggest utter indifference to the plight of African
American voters in his state. The camera angle, which appears to be taken from President
Lyndon Johnsons perspective, shows George Wallaces smug face while he articulates his
inability to do anything about the situation. Upon discerning George Wallaces disinterest in the
matter at hand, President Lyndon Johnson asks, Are you trying to (expletive) over your
President? The latter quote backs up skeptic claims about President Lyndon Johnsons
motivation behind endorsing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, claims further supported by the
following words from him in Selma, We should not be thinking about 1965. We should be
thinking about 1985. You and I will be both dead and gone by then. (In) 1985, what do you want
looking back? (Do) you want people remembering you saying, wait or I cant or it is too
hard? Well, Ill be damned if Im gonna (sic) let history put me in the same place as you. A
sequence then follows of President Johnson giving the articulate We shall overcome speech
which viewers now conclude to be insincere given his authority to initiate and endorse the
process right at the beginning of the movie when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was profusely
begging him to. The Selma movie, by use of dialogue that reveals unnecessary bureaucracies
invented by George Wallace, as well as President Lyndon Johnsons predilection to not initiate
lobbying for the Voting Rights act of 1965 until his image was at stake, therefore inculpates
gubernatorial and presidential administration as civil institutions that were fully aware of the
black voting rights situation but for selfish reasons refrained from doing anything to mitigate it.
President Lyndon B. Johnsons and Governor George Wallaces nonchalance to the plight of
African American voters could be likened to what has been perceived as the Judiciarys

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reluctance to persecute constituents of the police force who the citizenry contends unwarrantedly
harassed and even murdered African Americans while discharging their duties. Selma hints at
political influences that may have motivated the said reluctance.
The branch of the American civil service most extensively targeted by Selma is the police
force, whose violence the movie depicts as uncalled for and not in any way necessitated by
African American comportment during the matches. The juxtaposition between police
forcefulness and African American peacefulness is achieved through a blend of cinematographic
dialogue and camera techniques such as close-ups that reveal graphic detail when necessary to
emphasize the extent of police brutality. During a night match that takes place in Selma,
protesters unexpectedly stumble upon the police who were aware of their plans in advance.
Yall move back, move back now. Disperse!, orders a police official, presumably the leader of
the squad. Without giving the protesting African Americans an opportunity to do as commanded,
the police force descends upon them with their weapons. Sharp sound effects, unmistakably
those of forceful blows, accompanied with screams and compounded scenes of African
Americans scampering from the scene with the police in hot pursuit, follow. A scene is then
shown of the visibly terrified Jimmy Lee Jackson, who has successfully salvaged his father and
mother from the chaos, hurriedly entering a restaurant full of black people to seek safety. The
police burst in unannounced and start assaulting his parents. Upon trying to confront one of the
police officers, Jimmy Lee Jackson is shot. A fading sound accompanies a slow-motion close-up
of his face as he slowly dies. Jimmys slow-motion death after being shot seemingly dilates time,
allowing viewers to contemplate the scene and question its significance (Lancioni 110). The
sheer persistence of Jimmy Lee Jacksons dying face, in the context of a non-violent protest,
invokes indignant feelings in viewers. It begs the question, Why are unarmed, innocent

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protesters being harassed by the police, and why is a young man being killed for participating in
non-violent protest? Yet the camera perspective of Jimmy Lee Jacksons lifeless face puts
viewers directly at the scene, suggesting their position either as unconcerned bystanders or
perpetrators of the murder. The camera perspective therefore prompts users to reflect on the
immediacy of the situation at hand and their role in either curtailing or promoting the more
metaphorical situation of police brutality unfairly leveraged against African Americans in the
present day.
A similar situation is posed during the course of the first match from Selma to
Montgomery, whereupon white folk exuberantly spectate while the police force assails African
Americans. This scene feeds into modern-day debate on white privilege and its relevance to
police treatment of African Americans and other marginalized groups within the United States.
While it is certainly possible that Selma does not accurately portray non African-American
sentiment towards the plight of African Americans during the Selma marches, this does not take
away from the overall purpose of the movie. If anything, it adds to it. It serves to mobilize
communities within the United States not directly affected by racial intolerance therein to join in
the fight against a fundamentally unfair system.
The award winning song Glory, which concludes the movie, is the culmination of
Selmas critique of modern-day tension between African Americans and law enforcement in the
United States. Unlike the movie itself, which is intrinsically constrained by its primary purpose
of historical exposition, the song has the ability to directly address modern-day racial tension in
America something it achieves through not just its lyrics, but also arrangement of musical
chords and choice of genre aggregation. The songs chorus makes a constant reference to one
day, suggesting that broader racial equality in America is yet to be achieved. This message is

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reinforced with lyrics throughout the song, such as Justice for all just aint (sic) specific
enough. The lyrics then proceed to liken the Selma marches to the Ferguson marches in protest
of the murder of Michael Brown. The songs genre rests comfortably between Soul, a popular
1960s genre performed by John Legend, and Hip Hop, a popular contemporary music genre
performed by Common therefore highlighting the proverbial similarity between racial
oppression in the 1960s depicted in the movie and modern-day America. The instrumental chords
are simple yet profoundly melodic, while the lyrics and repetitive and employ devices such as
rhyme - what greatly aids the memorability of the song. Some may argue that the songs
placement at the end of the movie is purely to add to the films aesthetic since the common
tendency among moviegoers is to disregard everything that comes after the movie ends. It is
worth considering, however, that the song was released as a standalone at the movies premiere.
The songs catchy melody is guaranteed to get viewers, sometime after watching Selma, listening
to the song again and examining its political message in the context of the film it promotes.
Civil service negligence and racial inequality still exist in America, and are sadly either
sponsored or ignored by governmental agencies. Selma portrays these tendencies in a historical
context, and prompts viewers to reflect on the fact that nearly half a decade later, they still plague
the country. Skeptics maintain that the likening of police brutality during the Selma marches to
police brutality observed particularly in the Ferguson and Staten Island incidences is flawed
since African American comportment in the aforesaid cases arguably warranted use of force by
law enforcement agencies. These possible exceptions, however, do not take away from the
overall message of the movie bordering on civil service negligence and disproportionate
injustices meted out against African Americans because of their skin color.

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Works Cited
F. Bitzer, Lloyd. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy & Rhetoric 1.1 (1968): 1-14. Web. 25
Mar. 2015.
Herrick, James A. "An Overview of Rhetoric." The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An
Introduction. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson PLC, 2013. Print.
Lancioni, Judith. "The Rhetoric of the Frame." Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and
American Culture. Ed. Lester C. Olson. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2008. Print.
Selma. Paramount Pictures, 2015. Film.