wcaleb’s Twitter Archive—№ 9,595

1. The @AHAhistorians blog is beginning a series on #SelmaMovie. Some of my thoughts below. blog.historians.org/2015/02/history-good-enough-hollywood-selma-lyndon-b-johnson-martin-luther-king-jr/
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2. My gut reaction was a bit vinegary, I admit. It's worth a more constructive reply. @JasonKuznicki @KingsleySteph @wcaleb/570579819227799553
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3. First, my reading of these critiques of the movie is shaded by the fact that I didn't see the film as THAT critical of LBJ.
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4. The film clearly distinguishes between the likes of Wallace & racial liberals like LBJ. They highlight LBJ's "we shall overcome" speech.
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5. Historians harping on license taken in a few tense scenes b/w LBJ & MLK obscure some scholarly support for the film's interpretation.
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6. Indeed, author of latest piece notes elsewhere the "strained cheerfulness" & "vagueness" of LBJ-MLK convos, & LBJ's "anxiety about King"
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7. For those quotes, and transcripts of the LBJ-MLK phone calls, see this helpful exhibit from @Miller_Center millercenter.org/presidentialclassroom/exhibits/selma
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8. While those transcripts do show LBJ's support for voting rights legislation, they also show differences in priority & strategy.
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9. E.g. when LBJ's AG says in Feb, "they've gotten about everything they wanted, but they're still demonstrating." millercenter.org/presidentialclassroom/exhibits/selma#19650202
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10. Or when LBJ offers, as e.g. of the "worst" case of voting rights abuse, when Tuskegee president was denied vote. millercenter.org/presidentialclassroom/exhibits/selma#19650115
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11. The transcripts also make clear that LBJ wanted War on Poverty acts passed first, & didn't want voting rights act to threaten them.
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12. LBJ to MLK: "I don’t think you have any conception of the proportion of assistance that comes to your people in these [poverty] bills."
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13. Defenders of LBJ & critics of film pass over this as just a matter of legislative strategy, which perhaps it was.
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14. But the film offers plausible view that CRM leaders disagreed with LBJ's prioritization of W on P laws & even a moderate delay with VRA.
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15. Saying all of this doesn't imply LBJ=Wallace. Both film & sources compatible with view of LBJ & MLK working together.
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16. Finally, in a film called SELMA, not LBJ, I believe the LBJ character had to do lots of stand-in work for white liberals as a whole.
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17. I agree with this commenter: LBJ as "stand-in for the obstinacy and foot-dragging of his predecessors" blog.historians.org/2015/02/history-good-enough-hollywood-selma-lyndon-b-johnson-martin-luther-king-jr/#comment-1647643
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18. RT @brockter "It’s a movie, & it has an African American gaze on the past. From that gaze, LBJ looked obstructionist."
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19. And RT @jondresner "How many times have black individuals been collapsed, narratively?" Too many to count.
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20. Far from thinking LBJ would have had a "fourth heart attack" upon seeing the film, I think he himself would have understood this.
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21. LBJ's daughter recently recalled asking him why he gave pen that signed VRA to Everett Dirksen (R), not MLK tribtalk.org/2015/02/08/in-selma-a-missing-message-of-hope/
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22. LBJ's reply: "I didn't have to do a thing to convince the great civil rights leaders to be for the bill. They were already for it."
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23. "But Dirksen," LBJ continued, "that was another thing." LBJ's point: Reluctant whites had to be convinced. That's the film's point too.
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24. Not to mention film's other point, underscored by Oscar-winning song, that many whites still need convincing that #BlackLivesMatter
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25. As @PenielJoseph said, film refuses story that CRM is "something we all did together and the battle is over" npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/01/10/376081786/selma-backlash-misses-the-point
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26. On contrary, as David Gellman wrote in @HASlavery post on #SelmaMovie, "current conditions warrant deep concern" historiansagainstslavery.org/main/2015/02/the-long-selma-moment/
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