'Selma' does not distort history: Column

The movie Selma has not yet been released nationwide and it has already stirred controversy. That is to be expected. What is surprising is the source of the controversy, which centers not on the portrayal of Martin Luther King, whose extraordinary work and words have been subjected to a nearly 50-year campaign of distortion. King has often been reduced from a complicated, brilliant, high-minded and courageous leader with real flaws into a bronze figure suitable for selling everything from hamburgers to luxury cars.

In Ava DuVernay's film, King finally gets the treatment he deserves. He is, as powerfully portrayed by actor David Oyelowo, fully human, which makes King's courage, open-mindedness, compassion and pain more poignant and powerful than any wash job could do.

Instead, the controversy centers on the portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson, who some have argued, ahistorically, was the architect of the Selma march, and who others contend was made a "villain" in order to portray King more heroically.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Like this column?: Get more delivered

Voting rights issue

In Selma, Johnson is portrayed as initially reluctant to take up a voting rights bill in early 1965. He tells King in the film that he wishes to focus on his anti-poverty agenda. As the Selma marches (there were three in all) unfold, beginning with the violent conduct of Alabama troopers who brutally beat marchers on Bloody Sunday, Johnson moves the voting rights bill to a priority position. He ultimately delivers one of the most powerful speeches on race America has ever heard from a white president, including in it the words of the movement's theme song, "We shall overcome."

Detractors of the film argue that Johnson was a full partner with King and had no hesitation on the voting rights bill. In fact, the historical record confirms that Johnson's priority in early 1965 was, indeed, his anti-poverty agenda and not voting rights.

He told Vice President Humphrey, "if we don't pass anything but education, and medical care, and Appalachia, we have had a record that the Congressmen can be re-elected on." The reference to "Appalachia" was to his poverty bill.

To be sure, Johnson was a champion of voting rights and pushed for it in 1965. But the film also portrays Johnson as what he was, a man who was political to his bones, and who also had a deep understanding of the awfulness of Southern resistance on race.

Most importantly, Johnson was also clear about the historical legacy he was creating. He understood where he wanted his legacy to lie — on the side of progress, not repression. On the whole, Johnson is portrayed heroically in the film.

Not a documentary

Although Selma is impressive in most of its historical accuracy, it is not meant to be a documentary any more than 12 Years a Slave or Unbroken, two recent historical films in which artistic liberties were taken.

In fact, the noted and pivotal contributions of the organization I lead didn't make it into Selma.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) represented King at the trial along with brilliant Alabama attorney Fred Gray, portrayed in the film by Cuba Gooding Jr.

After Gov. George Wallace tried to appeal Judge Frank Johnson Jr.'s order permitting the march to go forward, LDF briefed and argued the opposition in court. Our lawyers developed the march route and logistics to comply with the judge's order, working on the floor of their Alabama motel room with local activists.

Stars ordinary people

But DuVernay's film is not about lawyers or presidents. It is about the ordinary people of the South who risked their lives and livelihood to demand their rights as citizens.

Selma's power lies in its unique portrayal of the humanity and interior life of black people who sacrificed greatly to free themselves from unimaginable oppression.

Any effort to hijack the attention this film richly deserves because of its portrayal of LBJ reflects everything that has been wrong with most civil rights films from Mississippi Burning to The Help — films that concern themselves principally with the heroism of white people in a movement that was created, driven and shaped by black people.

Selma is an important and powerful film — and long overdue.

Sherrilyn Ifill is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page or sign up for the daily Opinion e-mail newsletter.