'Selma' stars including Oprah march in Alabama, honoring MLK
SELMA, Ala. (AP) — Oprah Winfrey, fellow actors from the movie "Selma" and hundreds of others marched to recall one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights movement on Sunday, the eve of the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
The remembrance comes after several incidents in which unarmed black men were killed by police in recent months, spurring protests and heightening tensions around the country. In Ferguson, Missouri, where one fatal shooting caused weeks of violent protests, leading black members of Congress pressed for further reforms of the criminal justice system in the name of equality.
Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay at Wellspring United Methodist Church in Ferguson as they took up King's legacy in light of the recent deaths.
"We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences," said Clay, a St. Louis Democrat. "Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country."
In Selma, Winfrey marched with "Selma" director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and the rapper Common. Winfrey was a producer on the film and had an acting role like Common. They marched to Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed in 1965.
"Every single person who was on that bridge is a hero," Winfrey told the marchers before they walked up the bridge as the sun went down over the Alabama River. ...
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