‘Selma’ Stars Including Oprah March In Alabama, Honoring MLK

Oprah Winfrey and fellow actors from the movie “Selma” marched with hundreds Sunday ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, recalling one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights struggle. Their steps in tribute to King in Alabama came as key black members of Congress elsewhere invoked recent police shootings of young black men as evidence that reforms are needed to ensure equal justice for all.

Winfrey, a producer of “Selma” who also had a part in the film, joined in marching along with director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and the rapper Common, who also had an acting role. They and others marched from Selma City Hall to the city’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by officers 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. Common and John Legend performed their Oscar-nominated song “Glory” from the film as marchers crested the top of the bridge amid the setting sun.

Warnock closed the service by leading singing of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”

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AP writers Verena Dobnik in New York, Alan Schere Zagier in Ferguson, Missouri, and AP Radio Religion Editor Steve Coleman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

The Huffington Post