Selma Director: LBJ Defenders’ Criticisms ‘Jaw Dropping and Offensive’

In the past week an LBJ historian and former advisor have questioned Selma’s portrayal of Lyndon Baines Johnson as resistant to the Selma march and the Civil Rights Movement’s push for voting rights in general.

Writing in the Washington Post, former Johnson domestic affairs chief Joseph A. Califano Jr. said the film “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,” and went so far as to claim that “in fact, Selma was LBJ’s idea.”

Nice try, replied director Ava DuVernay in a series of tweets Sunday:

I can argue, @HitFixGregory. Notion that Selma was LBJ's idea is jaw dropping and offensive to SNCC, SCLC and black citizens who made it so.

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014

More detail here. LBJ's stall on voting in favor of War on Poverty isn't fantasy made up for a film. “@donnabrazile: http://t.co/dT4Mp4Em5j.

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014

Bottom line is folks should interrogate history. Don't take my word for it or LBJ rep's word for it. Let it come alive for yourself. #Selma

— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) December 28, 2014

Selma opened in limited release on Christmas and will go nationwide in early January.

[h/t HuffPost]

[Image via screengrab]

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