Ambassador Andrew Young "Sets the RECORD STRAIGHT" about LBJ And Selma

Listen to Roland Martin, Ambassador Andrew Young, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Lauren Victoria Burke, and Rock Newman discuss the controversy surrounding MLK biopic “Selma” above.

Story by NewsOne
Written by Kenon White

In a recent op-ed, Joseph A. Califano Jr., a top aide for President Lyndon B. Johnson found fault with how LBJ was portrayed in the Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic, “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay.

In his Washington Post piece, Califano wrote:

The makers of the new movie “Selma” apparently just couldn’t resist taking dramatic, trumped-up license with a true story that didn’t need any embellishment to work as a big-screen historical drama. As a result, the film falsely portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson as being at odds with Martin Luther King Jr. and even using the FBI to discredit him, as only reluctantly behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and as opposed to the Selma march itself.

Califano also stated in his opinion piece that “Selma was LBJ’s idea,” which has caused many involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 50s to cry foul. Califano also went as far to say that the movie should be “ruled out” during award season.

On Monday, Ambassador Andrew Young spoke with Roland Martin and the “NewsOne Now” Straight Talk panel about the true nature of the relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson as well as set the record straight about how LBJ was depicted in the movie “Selma.”


Ambassador Andrew Young set the record straight that the idea of Selma was by AMELIA BOYNTON....NOT former President Lyndon Johnson

Ambassador Young told Martin “Selma was AMELIA BOYNTON'S idea. AMELIA BOYNTON was a Black woman who went to Selma in 1929 with George Washington Carver, she registered to vote in 1932.” Young continued the history lesson saying, BOYNTON was a member of Delta Sigma Theta and “she lead a march across the “Black Belt” to get Barack Obama elected in 2010 when BOYNTON was 100-years-old.”

“This is the woman that nobody knows who came to see Martin Luther King, just before Christmas in 1964 and said, ‘You need to come and help us in Selma,’ and that is where the Selma movement started,” said Young.

Rock Newman, host of “The Rock Newman Show” called the controversy over whose idea the march on Selma was is the “tempest in the teapot” and said the debate over Selma takes away from the impact of this movie.

Newman said it was unfair for the discussion about the movie to be focuses on this controversy and “everyone should see this film. If White people would see it, they would see the insanity that is fostered with a sense of White supremacy and take some responsibility. If Black folks see it they would see the struggle and be inspired.”