Selma Plunges a Dagger In the Truth By Dr. Barbara Reynolds

Jan. 12, 2015

Selma Plunges a Dagger In the Truth
By Dr. Barbara Reynolds

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News Analysis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - If Coretta Scott King were alive today, she would not recognize herself as she is portrayed in the new movie Selma scheduled for a full release on January 9.

Except for the beauty of the actress Carmen Ejogo that plays human rights leader Coretta Scott King, the filmmakers misconstrued the intimate relationship she had with her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and miscast her as being tormented by fear when she was bold and courageous as she went through the fires of Southern terrorism as a wife, mother and her husband’s co-partner.

The movie is a powerfully dramatic story of the bloody civil rights struggle in Selma, Ala., which resulted in the Voting Rights Act which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965. It is directed by Black filmmaker Ava DuVernay with Oprah Winfrey as a woman being beaten into the dust by Nazi-like Alabama troopers. It tells how King played by David Oyelowo  and a charged up movement of Blacks and Whites combined protest with legislative muster to change the complexion and character of U.S. politics.

The movie has Oscar buzz and might not bother those who buy the premise that moviemakers are not historians and their mission is to entertain rather than to educate and to dramatically pursue a riveting story line regardless of its truth.

But then there are those of us who believe it is wrong for storytellers to mis-educate and fictionalize our main heroes which robs them of their historic truth, especially when they are no longer alive to defend themselves.  Sadly enough, it is easier to popularize a lie when it packs in more drama than the truth and the more often an untruth is told the harder it is to counter it.

Selma shows Mrs. King listening to a tape that suggests her husband was having sex with another woman.  It was a dramatic gotcha moment reportedly showing him as a philanderer and Mrs. King in anguish and in submissive tolerance asking him if he loved the “others.”

As Mrs. King’s biographer, she confided to me that she and Dr. King had a relationship secure in their love and in her trust that her husband was faithful to her and the marriage.  “It has been well established that the tape was sent by the FBI in an attempt to destroy our marriage and weaken him to the point he would take his own life.”

Describing the incident, she said: ”On January 5, 1965, I came across a package postmarked from Miami and dated November 2 that felt like it held a tape. I opened it. The package contained a reel of audiotape and a letter, which I also opened.

“The poorly typed letter read, 'King, we’ve found you out. This is just a sample of the goods we have against you. Your end will come soon. You are done for, there is only one way out for you. You better take it. You have thirty-four days before you will be exposed and publicly defamed.

“The letter had been sent some 34 days before Martin was to receive the Nobel Peace l Prize. There was no question in my mind that the letter was prodding Martin to commit suicide. Under stress, Martin often suffered from depression. In the sick minds of those who sent the letter, I’m sure they thought they were pushing my husband over the edge.

I had heard rumors that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI had prepared a suicide letter and a doctored tape to embarrass Martin. 'This must be it,' I said to myself. I sat up our reel-to-reel recorder and sat down to listen. Although I have read scores of reports talking about the reported scurrilous activities of my husband, there was nothing at all incriminating on the tape. It was of very poor quality and was recorded at some social event. I recognized a staffer Bernard Lee’s voice, but on the entire tape, I didn’t hear Martin’s. People were laughing, talking. Now and then I heard a dirty joke, some profanity. But there was nothing about Martin having sex or anything else that resembled the lies Hoover and his people were spreading.

“Oh, this is nothing,” I said to myself, cutting if off. I gave the tape to Martin who listened to it along with several staff members.

“Later, we learned what great lengths the FBI had taken to prepare the suicide package. Hoover had ordered the doctored tape be mailed from a southern state; an FBI agent flew to Florida with the small package, mailed it, and returned to Washington. Hoover reasoned that I would confront Martin and then leave him, putting Martin in such a weakened state that he would become ineffectual to the Movement. An impending divorce would also reduce his stature. Despite my refusal to fall for any of the bait, rumors spread through the media claiming we’d had a screaming match and saying I was on the verge of walking out. Once again, nothing could be further from the truth. Martin and I did not have the slightest argument over the tape."

As to their reported troubled relationship over Martin’s alleged infidelity, she said, “If there was anything like that I would have known.  A wife always know.’’  Yet despite her own confidence, it was puzzling that given the role of the FBI to discredit her husband that the media would put more credence to the smear than to the witness of  someone who Martin often described as “being only a heartbeat away.’’ That was just one of the many fabricated stories about Martin, our life, and me that I know were fabricated, pure and simple.”

Scenes showing Mrs. King traumatized by the outpouring of death threats to Dr. King and her family  were also out of character for a woman who often told me, “I gather strength from a crisis.”  She told me that rather than being a fearful woman, she had early in life come to terms with terror and the hate that produced it as part of the struggle.

As a teenager growing up in Heiberger, Ala. the family home was burned down, as was her father’s saw mill. On January 30 1956, she was home in Montgomery with her infant daughter Yolanda when it was firebombed.  Upon hearing of the danger, her father came to take her back home, but she refused to leave Martin which he later conceded would have made it more difficult for him to stand his ground if she had not been such a courageous soul.

This is not only the criticism levied against the movie for fictionalizing important historical events and DuVernay, a talented artist, is not the only filmmaker to do so.  Charges are flying back and forth that LBJ was depicted as an adversary instead of a leader in the Voting Rights struggle.

To be fair DuVernay has invited her critics to”investigate major historical moments themselves.” Unfortunately only a very few are gifted enough or have the resources to bring major events to world-wide audiences.

That is why it is so incumbent on the anointed storytellers not to plunge a dagger in the truth.

Dr. Barbara Reynolds is an ordained minister and formerly an editor/columnist for USA TODAY and a columnist for the ROOT DC of the Washington Post.  She is the author of six books, including Jesse Jackson: America’s David and has completed a biography of Coretta Scott King.