Second Thursday Social Justice Outreach Film Series

Second Thursday Social Justice Outreach Film Series
February 9, 6:00pm-7:45pm, Henderson County Public Library
“Murder in Selma”

Our guest speaker for this special Black History Month program will be the Rev. Clark Olsen, one of many ministers who traveled to Selma in response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s invitation. Following dinner with fellow white Unitarian Universalist ministers James Reeb and Miller Orloff at Walker’s Café, a historically African American restaurant that had graciously opened its doors to white Civil Rights workers, the three men headed back to Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, where those involved in the march were meeting. En route, all three were attacked with clubs by white segregationists. Reeb was hit on the head and died from his injuries two days later in a Montgomery hospital. 
       Rev. Olsen will show the CNN film “Murder in Selma,” conceived by his daughter, Marika Olsen, who was instrumental in its development. In it, Rev. Olsen, a witness to Selma’s tragedies, revisits the path of tears in 1997 and recounts those terrible times to his daughter. A discussion will follow the film, with comments and questions from the audience.
       In an article UU World, May-June 2001, Olsen states, “In the campaign for a voting rights law to remedy gross racial injustices, apparently something had to be the final straw politically, and Jim Reeb was that symbol.” Days after Reeb’s death, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Olsen thinks passage of that Act is . . . “probably the most powerful legislation that, long term, will move this country to justice for all.” Although retired, Rev. Olsen continues to share what he has learned from his Civil Rights experiences with schools and community groups.
-- Suzy Camp-Goodman, SJOT Film Series Coordinator.