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Carolina Ochoa

Dr. McLaughlin

WR 1330

2 March 2015

Selma : Rhetorical Analysis of the March for Change

The Untied States of America during the 1950’s and 60’s was a place of racial tension.

Although slavery had been outlawed for decades, its effects lingered on, particularly down in the

South. Assistance from the Civil Rights Movement prompted the majority of the nation to

desegregate, but not everyone was on board. Some southern states resisted and refused to let go

of the past. Eventually, this opposition brought civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and

others from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to Selma, Alabama, where African

Americans were still being denied their rights. Once there, a march was led in protest against the

denial of voting rights for African Americans of the region. That historic event was relived in

theaters throughout the US by means of a historical film called Selma. Directed by Ava

DuVernay, Selma retells the history of the Selma March on a more personal level. Selma chooses

to highlight the emotional, and physical, toll the participants of the 1960’s civil rights movement

endured in order to stress the difficult nature of change and illustrate why current society must

not regress in lieu of current social tension. The film’s rhetoric1 illustrates these points by use of

cinematography effects such as close-ups and slow motion of the camera, along with the

dialogue of conversations between characters.

In Selma, the use of close-ups allows the audience a glimpse at the pain and strains of the

civil rights leaders and participants in order to emphasize the difficult nature of change and of

1 James Herrick defines rhetoric as, “the systematic study and intentional practice of effective symbolic expression (7).” In other words, rhetoric is the use of using words or images to convey a message clearly and effectively to a targeted audience.

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why society must stay firm in its current hold on equality. The change sought for was equality of

the races in America, which was won but at a cost. There are various scenes in Selma that

illustrate this with use of close ups. For example, close up shots were employed in scenes of

murders and beatings of activists, enhancing the scene’s emotional impact, such as the scene of

Jimmie Lee Jackson’s murder. After Jimmie, his mother and grandfather flee from corrupt

policemen, who were beating on peaceful protesters, they are seen in a restaurant with frightened

and anxious expressions. There are close up shots of their faces, giving the audience a sense of

what Jimmie and his family are feeling. Shortly after, a struggle ensues as three policemen burst

in and viciously beat Jimmie’s elderly grandfather as another holds his mother by the throat with

a baton. As Jimmie tries to intervene in a nonviolent way, the third policeman begins to

mercilessly beat on him before callously shooting Jimmie at point black range. Jimmie’s face of

pain, confusion, and despair is clearly and slowly seen before he falls down, dead. His mother, at

just witnessing her son murdered in cold blood, begins to cry hysterically and cradles her dead

son in her arms as the grandfather passes out a few feet away.

The brutal nature of this scene, intensified by close-up shots, shows the horrors endured

in order for change and equality to come about. The audience sees that Jimmie was murdered for

change. The South was firm in its resistance and as a result, thousands of innocent African

Americans, like Jimmie, and other citizens supportive of civil rights, were beaten and murdered.

The purpose of the camera’s close-ups in this scene was to “call attention to” the suffering felt by

these characters to underscore the arduous nature of change (Lancioni 110). In film and

cinematography, “reframing is often used to provide close-ups of individuals [or any object]

barely noticeable in the original” and can be seen as “inviting viewers to question” and engage

with the median (Lancioni 106). Here, the viewer is invited into the strenuous process of change

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in the Deep South, in addition to its cruelty. This invitation to the injustices of the South has an

emotional appeal that “aim[s] either to elicit an emotion or to engage the audience’s loyalties or

commitments. (Herrick 13).” Here, the audience’s commitment to civil justice and obedience to

the country’s institutions, such as the police force, and their morals are tested. Moreover, these

scenes can be seen as somewhat similar to recent racial tensions of the country, such as

Ferguson2, and demonstrate to the audience what was endured for a better future and why society

now must ensure the security of that future.

In addition to close-ups, the use of slow motion for cinematography effect further

hammers home the idea that change is tough to come by and of why our changed society must

not regress. “Long takes, slow pans, and tight close-ups invite the viewers to explore images

[and] reflect on their possible meaning…(Lancioni 109).” The slow motions utilize does such, as

the audience is able to reflect on the moment in time and attribute meaning to it. An example of

this can be found at the beginning of Selma, as the explosion of a church is slowed down. In this

scene, the audience witnesses five African American girls, dressed in their Sunday best outfits,

walk downstairs and as one girl stops behind the others on the staircase, an unexpected explosion

occurs. Instead of having the explosion play out in regular time, it is decelerated, showing the

movement of the debris and bodies of the innocent girls. The scene then cuts to black and slowly

pans out, over the rumbles of the church with the bodies of the girls covered in its ruins. The

decreased movement of time with slow motion extends and augments the tragedy that has just

occurred. The effect of this “mobile framing makes [the] viewers symbolic enactors of the very

act they would condemn as inhuman (Lancioni 111).” Slow motion does this by prolonging the

“inhuman” act, making the audience a bit uncomfortable and even outraged. An appeal is made

2 Ferguson is a city in Missouri where riots and protest took place as a result of the killing of an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, by a white police officer.

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to the audience’s emotions to again demonstrate what has been endured for a better future and

why society now must ensure the security of that future. Also, the slow motion of this scene, and

even the scene of Jimmie Lee’s murder, creates the sense of an extended time, which symbolizes

the duration of the injustices and how long it took for change to come about. The lengthen shot

of the church explosion is a metaphor for the lengthy time it took for this country to change its

old ways. The audiences who are witnessing this travesty occur are like the people of the country

who were watching the humiliations, beatings, and murders of African Americans. This has the

purpose of testing the audience’s morals and showing why society can’t allow for racial

differences to bring about such immoral actions, such as killing innocent children.

Selma’s dialogue, particularly intimate dialogue, between characters, such as MLK, John

Lewis, and Coretta King, also highlights the onerous nature of change by giving the audience

insight into what the characters felt. Some of the intimate conversations between MLK and his

wife Coretta show the strains that their marriage and themselves were under during the

movement. Although Coretta was not a part of the Selma March, she was targeted due to her

connection with MLK and dealt with a great, emotional struggle over concerns for her family’s

safety. She would receive menacing phone calls that would threaten her family or try to destroy

her marriage by using recordings of MLK’s alleged affairs. Even though Coretta bottled up most

of her worries, she occasionally expressed her distress and sadness to King. Moreover, King

would also express his own doubts and worries he had himself. While MLK and John Lewis, a

civil rights leader, rode in a car, King revealed to John the weariness he felt and his doubt of

continuing the march in Selma, since change was not easy to come by and people were getting

hurt. To this, Lewis responds by sharing with King his experience on the Montgomery bus ride

where his friend, Jesse, was savagely beaten unconscious by a white man and his daughter.

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Lewis then proceeds to tell King that despite the fact of being badly beaten, Lewis still attending

a gathering King held the following day. Lewis tells King this to encourage and assure him that

although change is difficult to come by, it will come if it is true and right. Currently, that change

has been sought and instilled in society, but one can see glimpses into the past with recent events

such as Ferguson. The dialogue between MLK, Coretta, Lewis, and other characters of the film,

paints the picture of how much damaged was caused and how much effort was put into the civil

rights movement for constitutional change to happen.

However, one may argue that the dialogue of Selma illustrates how fragile the inner

workings of the civil rights movement was. The dialogue may portray this in the sense that it

shows the uncertainty felt by the characters about the civil rights movement. An example of this

doubt can be found in the conversation between MLK and Lewis in MLK’s vehicle. In addition

to revealing to Lewis his weariness and apprehension with following through with the march,

King apologizes to Lewis for the problems he has been encountering with his student

organization. Lewis’s group seems to be at a divide due to the arrival of King and his

organization. Although in Selma to help, the presence of these characters stirs up mixed feelings

for the organization, especially for its other leader James Foreman. Foreman does not like the

fact that King is in Selma, in spite of them both having the same ultimate goal. He sees King’s

presence as potentially harmful to their cause, and is initially reluctant to the march. This sort of

unrest between civil rights activists and leaders, in addition to MLK’s (the primary figure for the

movement) tiredness, seen in the film can potentially be attributed to the notion that the civil

rights movement was more fragile than most people would believe.

Although that interpretation is plausible, it is not what the dialogue hints at. In fact, there

are key moments in the dialogue of Selma that shows strengthen in the movement. For example,

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when civil rights lawyer Fred Gray, played by Cuba Gooding Jr., is speaking to Judge Johnson,

he says that, “hundreds of people [are] travel[ing] across the country to attend tomorrow’s

march.” The march Gray refers to the second attempt at marching from Selma to Montgomery,

AL. After the first attempt was thwarted by brutish police force through means of physical

violence, MLK puts out a plea for Americans to take action, which many do. The second march

is noticeably larger with many more participants, mainly white people, joining in the battle.

Regardless, this still isn’t enough for change to occur. Some of the white people of the South still

resist and refuse to acknowledge the rights of blacks. Some even go as far as treating those who

assist in the civil rights battle as bad or worst than African Americans, since they are considered

traitors. This is seen when Reverend James Reebs is murdered by anger, white Southerners for

being a “white nigger.” This white man’s speech of hate and disregard for the life of African

Americans sympathizers shows how difficult it was to try to improve the social and political

status of African American in the region and for social justice to come about.

Selma is an extraordinary film that takes the audience on a trip to the past. The purpose of

this trip was to educate the audience on the story behind the Selma March and of the battle

fought in order for change and justice to come and triumph. The film’s rhetoric illustrates these

points by use of close-ups, slow motion, and dialogue to convey a sense of the taxing work the

civil rights leaders and activists performed in order for all to be truly equal. Their valuable work

must be preserved. Currently, racial tensions reflect a hint of a return to the past, in which society

must overcome. The country as a whole must come together, like the marchers in Selma did, to

maintain the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement and the keep the dream that Martin Luther

King Jr. had alive.

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Works Cited

Herrick, James A. "An Overview of Rhetoric." The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Beacon, 2001. 1-23. Print.

Lancioni, Judith A. "The Rhetoric of the Frame: Revisioning Archival Photographs in The Civil War." Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Documentary: A Case Study of The Civil War. Philadelphia, PA: Temple U, 1994. 105-15. Print.

Selma. Dir. Ava DuVernay. By Paul Webb. Perf. David Oyrlowo. Paramount Pictures, 2014. Film.

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