Selma And The Help Analysis

This article talks about and answers question about why African American women activist are not really recognized and portrayed well. In this article, Lott uses 2 films to talk about the portrayal of African American Woman during the Civil Rights movement. Lott uses the movie Selma and The Help in order to help identify and hopefully change the problems that has arisen. In Selma Martin Luther King was shone as the main protagonist and was shone doing most of the work fighting and advocating for African American Civil Rights, but the fact is “According to Payne (1990), “women canvassed more than men, showed up more often at mass meetings and demonstrations and frequently attempted to register to vote” (p.67) (“Men Led but Women Organized”). (Lott, pg.332)” They were the actual backbone and the workers in the civil rights movement. But was not portrayed equally and some historical facts were not portrayed at all. In The Help the movie mainly focused in on the white protagonist and proceeds to ignore what really happened. The African American men and women helped plan and lead the protests and the movements. According to Lott “Their statement read, “Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers” …show more content…
Lott gives us a lot of real life quote to support her thesis and claim which helps the audience get rid of skepticism even if they have not seen the film The Help and Selma. What she did not do a good job on is wasting too much time, she repeats a lot of the same information, she tends to repeat the stuff she said in her introduction and also in her body paragraphs and then again in her conclusion. The article could’ve been 2-3 pages shorter if she was more concise with her