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--- 329:question:329--week_12_questions_comments-2018 [2018/11/15 06:01] – [Comparing the reading to the movie] jcolchad
+++ 329:question:329--week_12_questions_comments-2018 [2018/11/15 08:54] (current) – [The "So, what?" question] 76.78.226.146
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 I'm not quite sure if this was an error in fact, but the water fountain that Selma stopped at after leaving the bus was not marked with a "White" or "Colored" sign, which was a common practice in Southern public spaces at the time. Source: http://www.african-american-civil-rights.org/montgomery-bus-boybott/ ~Will Everett
+Will, I also noticed that. While I do not know whether it was intentional or not I found it interesting, not only did the three white boys follow her into the park but a caucasian family was walking in the neighborhood very clearly ignored the action going on. So, I thought it would have been marked one way or another. --Caroline Collier
 ====== Things the Movie got right ======
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 The flyer that Odessa's sons read aloud was real, and the text they read was accurate to the original. Source: https://www.crmvet.org/docs/mbbleaf.htm ~Will Everett
+The movie got the usage of the busses in the beginning of the film correct as the black women had to pay up front then go and walk to the back to go get a seat or stand. This was something that I did not know before our lecture. As well as branding the boycotters as negative things for the time such as communists, as the communists were the enemy. --Jack Hagn
 ====== Questions about interpretation ======
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 Considering people who lived through a segregated America saw this film, how did the audiences react to facing white guilt? Was the accurate portrayal of racism hard for audiences to digest in 1990, and did it create controversy? --Jessica Lynch
+I thought it was interesting that Mrs. Thompsons mother compared African Americans equality to whites as communism. She implied that allowing equality through all races was wrong and strictly off limits (which at the time was normalized, but I still saw has very harsh). It was not something she believe should ever happen. --Caroline Collier
 I'm interested in learning if there actually were any white women that drove for the carpool during the boycott. I cannot find any sources that provide a lot of information on it other than the fact that some maids were picked up by white housewives. -Lake Wiley
 Going off of what Will commented on, the film did not show how African Americans who walked were treated like when whites found them. I believe Dr. McClurken mentioned that white drivers would throw food and garbage at them but filmmakers decided to omit this. - Johana Colchado
+I agree with Carolyn's point about Miriam. It is strange as to how prominent Miriam's role as an eventual helper of the boycott. She becomes this person who makes up for the other bad white people. This seems like a choice of the time and a way to still have a white lead. As such an important moment, the climax is a white woman helping out? I think thats really weird and would like to know how the public reacted and how this differed from the screenplay by John Cork.--Jack Hagn
 ====== The movie as a primary source of its time ======
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 This movie could be used as a good example to show what African-Americans went through and how they fought for their equality. The fight for equality was a hard and tough one but this movie shows the friendship between a white woman and a black woman during a time when that was frowned upon but it still persevered --Alyx Wilson
+I thought it was interesting that the film still has a heavier white presence in the film's storyline, even though it's about the Civil Rights cause, maybe this is a reflection of the times though, the 90's had way more white centered films than they did any other. It was also interesting that Miriam's daughter is narrating, why not Odessa's daughter? I'm not quite sure. I also thought that the strong female leads, especially them being Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek who were relevant and semi-big stars in the 90s, show a reflection of the times as well. -Amiti Colson
+I think that there was interest and recognition growing in the 1980's and 1990's for the Civil Rights movement, such as with the campaign to create Martin Luther King Jr. day. This movie is partially a reflection of that, with public interest in going to see a story like this one about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. - Sam Hartz
 ====== Comparing the reading to the movie ======
 The reading about Rosa Parks and Virginia Durr mentioned that a lot of the people participating in the bus boycott would lie to their bosses about why they were not riding the bus. In the movie, Odessa does the same thing at first. She tells Mrs. Thompson another reason as to why she walks to work. The black women who boycotted the bus would lie about why they were doing it and the white women who took part in driving them around would lie about their involvement. -Maddie Shiflett
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 I really enjoyed Miriam's character development throughout this movie. Starting out as a typical white woman in the 50s, she was afraid of upsetting her husband and wanted everything to be proper. As the movie went on, she found her voice and began to stick up for what she believes in right. I wonder if this was a predicament that many women found themselves in, or if Miriam was an exception. --Maryanna Stribling
+I agree with Maryanna, I also liked Miriam’s character development. She went from helping Odessa out of convenience to truly wanting to help the cause in any way she could. It was amazing to see her stand up to her husband using such a sassy and direct manner, something that would have been considered a no-no. The way the white women would talk to each other makes me believe it was a time when problems were kept inside of the home and a ‘perfect, happy family’ image was upheld. So it was just really neat to see her change her point of view and not allow anyone else to tell her who she is, what to think, what to do, or who she should be afraid of. - Johana Colchado
+"The Long Walk Home" does a great job to really develop these two families in the film. It allowed for audiences to see that women like Odessa were individuals with dreams and worries, that she was more than an abstract character representing a cause. The movie conveys the Montgomery Bus Boycott on a raw, emotionally personal level. The filmmakers presented this story in human terms, not in social terms. -Amiti Colson
+I think that the filmmakers wanted their audience to perceive the Montgomery Bus Boycott in a more real way than they had learned about it in. I think they did a good job of making what the activists involved in the boycott went through feel real to an audience of people who may not themselves have experienced discrimination. - Sam Hartz