Local business leaders start fund to send students to ‘Selma’
20th January 2015 · 0 Comments
By David T. Baker
Contributing Writer
A contingent of African-American business leaders in New Orleans are leading an effort to raise funds to send thousands of students to see Selma, a new film chronicling the events that lead to the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, matching an effort underway in cities across the nation.
Roderick West, executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Entergy Corporation in New Orleans, said “New Orleans is proud to be a part of this remarkable movement to share this important and timely piece of American history.”
West is part of a group of African Americans leading the local effort to rally citizens, businesses and organizations to support the fund that will be used to provide 7th-, 8th- and 9th-grade students in New Orleans schools with free admission to see Selma.
“We’re targeting ten thousand 7th-, 8th- and 9th-graders from all of the New Orleans area schools,” West said. He also said that while their target is 10,000 students, “the hope is that we will exceed that number.
“If any of the students want to see it who are in that age group, our goal is to make it available to them,” West said.
Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, chronicles the three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a violently contested campaign to secure equal voting rights for African Americans. The march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Selma tells the story of how revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement sparked a change that altered the course of American civil liberties. The film recently earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Song for “Glory” by Common and John Legend, and was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director.
The efforts in New Orleans, along with those in Chicago, Dallas, Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area and Washington D.C., “are inspired by the success of the program in New York City, in which 27 African-American business leaders created a fund for 27,000 of the city’s 7th-, 8th- and 9th-grade students to see the film for free. Due to the overwhelming demand, the New York City effort sold out in the very first weekend and was expanded to 75,000 tickets,” according to a press release issued by Paramount Pictures.
“The chance to share a film, which has so poignantly captured a pivotal moment in our history, has struck a deep chord within the African-American business community and resonated so profoundly across the country that a simple idea has become a national movement,” said Tony Coles, former CEO, Onyx Pharmaceuticals. “We are gratified that generous donors across the country see the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our youth.”
West said that providing these free screenings to students helps to remove a barrier to exposure to the history of African-American civil rights.
So far, West says, Entergy and Chevron are the leading supporters and have gotten commitments from former New Orleans mayor and National Urban League president Marc Morial, Liberty Bank, QCS Logistics, and Michael Smith at the Hyatt to name a few.
“This is a team effort in every way,” West said. “I cannot tell you how affirming it is for me to have the opportunity to work on something like this across the country.”
The group is working with the Urban League of New Orleans, which is acting as a fiduciary agent for the fund. Donations can be sent to UGNO with a memo for SELMA.
West said his hope is that the film will instill a sense of pride and appreciation for the history of civil rights in the students, and that the free admission of the film is, “To foster and begin a conversation where there has not been a conversation; to cause a deeper set of questions to be asked if there had been a conversation; to enlighten the young people to the immutable fact that the liberties we have today came at a heavy price that we should never take for granted. Our people have blood in those bricks.”
Students who present a current student ID or report card at the box office of any participating theater will receive free admission while tickets last.
Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, which is distributing “SELMA,” is coordinating the programs with participating theaters in the U.S. For a list of participating theaters in select cities offering free admission to students during this program and for information on group sales, visit www.SelmaMovie.com/studenttickets.
To help get the word out about the program, tweet using the hashtag #SelmaForStudents. Selma is playing in theaters nationwide. To learn more about the film, go to http://www.selmamovie.com.
You can follow news and updates from David T. Baker on Twitter @Tadfly.
This article originally published in the January 19, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
