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====== Errors in fact ======
The ending of the movie in the carpool lot never happened. However, the hate times committed by the White Citizens Council were plenty. The movie mentions the bombing of Martin Luther King's home which as likely the fault of the WCK or a group of segregationists. -Lake Wiley 
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3291

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 ======

The preacher speaking at the Montgomery Bus Boycott rally at the Holt Street Baptist is an actual recording of Martin Luther King’s “if we are wrong” speech. Dr. King spoke to nearly 5,000 people at the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery on December 5, 1955, just four days after Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery city bus. Cite: https://blackpast.org/1955-martin-luther-king-jr-montgomery-bus-boycott --Andrew Mullins

They did a phenomenal job of recreating the boycott, I thought. They showed the struggles of the people who participated in the boycott. They lost their jobs, had no means of transportation other than walking, and if transportation was available(carpooling) sometimes that became rather difficult or inconvenient. Despite the difficulties they faced participating in such a movement, they continued to boycott the bus and sacrifice whatever they needed to - very powerful. It portrayed the racism for this time rather accurately as well. -- Lindsey Sowers 

It did not state specifically, but I assume the council that Mr. Thompson joins is supposed to be the White Citizens’ Council. This group was made up of white, wealthy businessmen. It first met in Mississippi following the //Brown v. Board of Education// decision. They aired television programs and had chapters all over the South. Their nickname came to be the “uptown Klan.” Mississippi’s legislature started the State Sovereignty Commission to provide funds to the council. It claimed that it was not a violent group, but the council used intimidation tactics to keep blacks from registering to vote, among other things. 
"White Citizens' Councils." PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-citizens-council/. -Maddie Shiflett 

Churches were extremely important to the Civil Rights Movement. Odessa’s family always attended church because it was important to them as a place to practice religion but it had another important role during this time. Church was not just a time to practice their faith, but also a time to discuss what was going on in the world around them and about civil rights matters. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a civil rights group that grew out of the church, of which Martin Luther King Jr. served as president, and is an example of the important role that churches played in the fight for equal rights. "Southern Christian Leadership Conference." National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/sclc.htm. -Maddie Shiflett 

Overall, they got a lot of the general information about the Montgomery bus boycott right. They especially do a good job of portraying how difficult it was for the people who participated in the boycott. People lost their jobs, had trouble getting to places, and so many people had to walk. It also shows how despite the difficulty that the boycott was, it was more important to these people to boycott the busses than to be able to get to work without walking miles. -- Carolyn Stough

I thought the movie did a really good job portraying the boycott in the film as well as the racism whites had towards blacks at this time. As well, I thought the film showed how powerful the boycott became and the difference on impact it had on everyone. – Courtlyn Plunkett 


The fact that this film showed the brutality of racism and its effects is its greatest strength. Many movies set in and around this time period avoid the subject or try to lighten the situation. One movie that I kept thinking of while watching this is "The Help", especially in the scenes with Mrs. Thompson and Mary Catherine. "The Help" addresses some issues of racism, but makes them either comical or not very severe. This film did not shy away from the use of slurs and violence toward black people that did happen, and continue to happen. Several of the events in the film, like the boycott itself, the firebombing of Dr. King's home, and the initial meeting at the church were also historically accurate. Overall, this film did a good job at representing the time period. --Erin Shaw

To add on what Erin said, when I watched and read the readings, Virginia Durr says in her talks about the mayor Tacky Gayle who pleas for white women to stop driving black maids’ home.  Durr says that they would be willing to stop if, Tacky would come to their homes and cook the food, help raise the children. I couldn’t help but be a cynical and wonder if the only reason they helped was because they wanted “The help.”-William Roszell

The bombing of Martin Luther King Jr’s house as depicted by the movie is accurate to the timeframe of the real-life event taking place in January 30, 1956. Though, King was speaking at a mass meeting at the First Baptist Church and not at his home when the bomb detonated. “King's Home Bombed.” Birmingham Campaign | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, 30 Jan. 1956, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/kings-home-bombed -Kyle Moore

They did a good job showing the car pool system that was set up after taxi drivers were penalized for getting involved with the boycott. During the boycott, the MIA created a carpool system of about 300 cars for black men and women could use to get to work. Like we taked about in class, mainly black women had jobs that were farther from where they lived because they took what ever job that they could get since there was not many options available to them. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott  -- Ellora Larsen

I thought the movie did a greate job at comparing the lives of the two women. It balanced both of their lives in the film and depicted both as having struggles. Oddessa clearly had more to overcome than did her boss, but it was a good point that the movie showed when she feels threatned by her husband and is confined to her gender roles. It similarily shows how both women fit into their different family dynamics and the relationships that were created as a result. -- Grace Corkran

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 

====== Questions about interpretation ======

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an influential event in the Civil Rights movement, when a collective population of African Americans chose to walk rather than ride. As I have seen footage of the protests, they are nowhere near as emotionally fueled (and arguably preachy) as the ones depicted in this film. I'm interested in how despite choosing to over-romanticize an event that, while significant, was nowhere near as extravagant as the movie conveys, that it still works to its advantage, making the film itself powerful, and even uplifting (spiritually) <(To that point, the constant presence of the church and the family's prayers really drove the point home). --Robert Dallas

Even though this was a film about the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the main characters and character arcs was about a white woman who decided to help. It is an interesting choice that the main emphasis was on Miriam and her character arc rather than Odessa. The climax of the film was when Miriam decided to defy her husband and drive for the carpool. Even in the ending credits, Sissy Spacek who played Miriam was billed above Whoopi Goldberg who played Odessa. I just find this all a strange choice for a film about such an important moment in civil rights. --Carolyn Stough

Like Carolyn, I was also a bit confused by the focus on Mrs. Thompson over Odessa in the climactic moment. Mary Catherine even seemed to be prioritized over Odessa as the narrator. I also found the scenes that tried to humanize Norman to be odd, like the scene where he named all the streets after his wife and daughters, because he should not be a character the audience wants to relate to. However, many of his scenes paint him in an oddly sympathetic light, even though he is a member of the white citizens council and planned to beat or possibly kill innocent black people. While this movie did a great job at showing racism, it still played into a white savior mentality, especially with Mrs. Thompson. When I saw the cover of the DVD, I assumed it was a film about Rosa Parks and Virginia Durr. I was also surprised that Rosa Parks was never mentioned, and if she was, it was only in passing. Given her key role in this boycott, and this film's focus on the experiences of black women, I thought she would at least be mentioned. --Erin Shaw

As we discussed in class the boycott was mostly effective however, in the film Selma takes the bus and is attacked for it. Did African Americans who didn’t participate in the boycott or rode the bus occasionally get treated worse for it? --William Roszell

I am wondering the same as William here. The boycott was a rather large movement so many African Americans took part in. They we're trying to make a change and stand up to racism. It makes me question, if an African American hadn't participated in such a movement and conformed to society as the way it already was, were they chastised for it?? -- Lindsey Sowers 

I thought the scene where Odessa's son was beaten up to protect his sister when he followed his sister as she attempted to ride the bus to go meet the boy she was seeing. I was wondering how common it would have been for whites to attack the few African Americans who chose to ride the bus during the boycott. Also what would have been the reactions of other African Americans in response to the few people if there way many who decided to not follow the boycott. -- Ellora Larsen

There's a scene at the beginning of the movie where Odessa gets reprimanded for being in the park with Mary Catherine. Miriam then calls to complain, and gets the police officer to apologize to everyone, including Odessa. Like, Elorra, I wonder how common this was - both a mother protecting her maid and a police officer apologizing to one. --Maryanna Stribling

I though it was interesting that the relationship between Odessa and Mary Catherine was more developed then between her own mother. It was a point that the film made to show how Odessa had been the first to rock her to sleep and always had a special bond with her. The mother did not have the same relationship with Mary Catherine and that stuck out to me because her role in the movie was to be a wife and a mother yet she seemed to have more of a concern running the house that being emotionally available for her children. I was wondering if that played into why her oldest child was also very distant with her. -- Grace Corkran 


I also thought it was an important point that the movie focused on the religion of African Americans and the role of Christianity. I agree completely and think that the movie should have depicted it in this way because religion was so fundamental to the Civil Rights Movement and the lives of many African Americans at this time. As a question for interpretation, should the movie have juxtaposed the religious background of whites at this time with the spiritual lives of African Americans?-- Grace Corkran 

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
====== The movie as a primary source of its time ======

This movie came out at the start of the 90s, meaning that America had just gotten out of the 80s, which were an arguably significant time for the African American community. With Ronald Reagan's war on drugs, as well as the rise in "Gangsta Rap" and Hip-Hop in general in the music industry, the black community had a spotlight over it once again (and not necessarily for the better). Stereotypes of black people carrying drugs became even more prevalent during this time, and there was disdain for the Hip-Hop industry, which some would classify as "black music." In a lot of ways, select groups of the black community didn't help matters, as they not only fueled stereotypes, but also partook in Gang violence that more often than not saw them gunning down each other. To that extent, it almost seems as if this movie is a palette cleanser for the public image of the African Americans: it serves as a reminder to others what the black community fought for and achieved, and it reminds the black community of where they came from and what they fought for (and still were fighting for). --Robert Dallas

As the movie was set in the 1955-1956 start of the Civil Rights Movement, The Long Walk Home comes off a continuing civil rights struggle in America in the 90’s. Racial tensions were still a prevalent issue that became apparent looking at the reviews for the movie at the time. While met with mostly positives reviews, it also garnered some mixed reviews that are telling of the racial attitudes of the time it was released. -Kyle Moore

Virginia Durr's comments were definately reflected in the movie. Claudia had the line about "when your hand is in the lion's mouth its better just to pat it on the head" that Durr's maid said.  
The movie took the larger context of the whole movement and narrowed it down to the small group of characters in the movie while still showing a universal experience. -Jessie Fitzgerald

All movies about the civil rights movement, including this one, are an image of how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go. In the 90s, people of color still faced discrimination within employment, the criminal justice system, and all facets of social life. This movie could have served as a call to action to 1990s Americans to rescind our awful past as a nation and ensure it doesn't happen again, while stirring existing racial tensions. --Jessica Lynch

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
====== 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 

I thought it was interesting how the reading talked about white women secretly driving their maids to work since it was unsafe to ride the bus system which Mrs. Thompson does in the movie but she seems like she was the only one doing it. The white women and the African American women in the reading made it seem like they both protected each other by saying they did not take part in the boycott. -- Ellora Larsen

In the Rosa Parks and Virginia Foster Durr reading, it discusses the mass meeting that Martin Luther King was selected to be the speaker at. It states that there were between ten to fifteen thousand people crowding in and around the church. The movie depicts this when Odessa and her family go to the mass meeting. You see that the church is overflowing and that those that are outside are listening through speakers and that it his speech is really having an impact on the African Americans present. – Courtlyn Plunkett 

You really get this sort of sense of protection from both the film and the reading where anyone participating in the boycott would stretch the truth about their affiliation towards the movement. I think this is a rather important detail. -- Lindsey Sowers

Since this was a big movement I would’ve thought the film would’ve incorporated Rosa Parks and MLK even if it was for a fleeting moment. After reading the article on Parks and Dunn I expected to see more of these two characters but I did not. I feel that it was more about how the maids and their white employers underwent these big changes.
-Johana Colchado
====== The "So, what?" question ======
I really liked how rather than making Miriam the white savior character, Odessa told her that the boycott movement (and larger movement) would go on regardless of what she did. It was more about Miriam choosing to do what she knew to be right even when it was hard and against what she was being told. And not just Miriam's decision to give rides, but everyone else's decision to not ride the bus. some of the other movies we watched from the 90s fell into this trope, so was it just the historical context that made this movie different in that respect? -Jessie Fitzgerald 

I found myself asking this after the movie ended because I wanted to know what happened to Odessa. The end credits let us know that the boycott ended successfully, but provided no information on Odessa, her family, or Mrs. Thompson. Future Mary Catherine doesn't even allude to her safety or happiness. She just says she knew her. I was concerned about the future of the characters, especially after that final scene. It was almost like a cliff hanger, but we'll never get a follow-up. I thought this was an odd choice for the filmmakers, but maybe it was symbolic of the many stories we will never know about the individuals who fought for their civil rights. Or maybe I'm reaching to make sense of this ending. --Erin Shaw

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