Leadership Style of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Movie Selma

This study analyzes the leadership style of Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie Selma, focusing on his strengths and the non-violent movement. The study also highlights the importance of his leadership role in the context of the given situation. The movie portrays the historical events related to the incident of Selma in the year 1965, where the movement was held mostly under the leadership and guidance of Martin Luther King. The purpose of the leadership movement was to get the voting rights for the black skinned people in the Selma district. With the effective leadership style of Dr. King, he has been able to inspire many young people to join and become an active member of the movement. The study also discusses the characteristics of inspirational leadership, emotional connect with every member of the movement, and the power of nonviolence as effective leadership characteristics of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Running head: FUNDAMENTAL OF LEADERSHIP
Fundamental of leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Executive Summary
For the given assignment, the movie Selma (2014) has been chosen that is based upon the
leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. He was famous for his style of revolutionary leadership that
was used in the civil movement rights movements within USA. The purpose of the movement is
to ensure legal rights for the African-Americans, who were denied from all types of fundamental
rights that included even, lack of participation in general election. The study will highlight upon
the strengths of leadership and non-violence movement that was the basic characteristics style of
Martin Luther King Jr. The study will also focus upon the style of leadership that is being
applied within the movie. It will therefore possible to understand the importance of the
leadership role played by Martin Luther King in the context of the given situation.

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The Selma Movie was one of the popular of 2014 that beautifully portrayed the historical
events related to the incident of Selma in the year 1965. The movement was held mostly under
the leadership and guidance of Martin Luther King. The movement was held as a March protest
along the 54-mile highway. The protest was mainly held in the form of Non-violence, as Luther
King got inspired mainly from the guidance style of Mahatma Gandhi.
The movie began on an inspiring note with Luther King accepting his Nobel Prize for
peace. Soon after, there was bombing scene, where four young girls of African–American family
died in the accident. There was also other scene, where Annie Lee Cooper, who was another
important face of the civil right movements, was seen to deny her attempt to register for vote in
the Selma district. The Selma district was the root of the civil movement that initiated the
movement.
The movie however did not portray the entire life history of Luther King as the main
focus area was his life style as one of the popular civil rights leader. The purpose of the
leadership movement was to get the voting rights for the black skinned people in the Selma
district. With the effective leadership style of Dr. King he has been able to inspire many young
people to join and become an active member of movement. The movie has also highlighted the
roles of many other leaders of the history of civil rights. With the help of the inspirational and
motivational style of speech that has been seen in the movie, the leadership style of Dr. King has
inspired many other people within the community to take the initiatives to join in the protest
march at Selma.
From this style of motivation, it can be said that most of the important factors and
characteristics of leadership of Dr. King is related to that of the inspirational leadership. One of

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the main features and characters of the inspirational leadership is to ensure that they are quickly
able to connect with the people both at the emotional and psychological levels (Hellmann, 2016).
In the given context it can be said that the modern liberal society can greatly be influenced by the
strong individual and their effective leadership styles.
Dr King, who is the main protagonist in the film has been demonstrated as a hugely
influential person, who is even scared to make big decisions as it can be life risk for himself.
Hence, it can be seen that an influential leaders often fear the loss of life. This is due to the huge
concerned they have for their followers. In spite of the popularity of influential and
Revolutionary leader, interview course of the social act, they tend to form huge number of
enemies. Nevertheless, another important characteristics of every Revolutionary leader is to
ensure that they understand the viewpoint of the people in the society, who are totally against
their ideology (Selma's refreshing portrayal of leadership, 2018).
The movie also demonstrated the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was another famous
Revolutionary leader during that period. Hearing the news of the murder, Dr. King was show to
fell down in tears. From this it is evident that another important characteristics of every
Revolutionary leader is to have high level of emotional connect with every member of their
movement. This is considered to be one of the major cause of their Rapid rise in popularity
within certain group of people (Selma's refreshing portrayal of leadership, 2018).
Another important characteristics of Dr King's leadership style was non-violence act. It
was evident in the film that even after the troops of Selma brutally assaulted all the members in
the social active movement, Dr King decided that he is not going to complaint against the same.
Instead in one of the scene within the movie he was seen to pray and express thank to the troops,
when they allow him and his followers to carry forward the protest march into the road of Selma

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district. Hence, the strong believe in the power of nonviolence is one of the effective leadership
characteristics of Dr Martin Luther King, which has been effectively portrait in the movie by his
humble gesture towards the enemy.
Another important characteristics of every Revolutionary and inspirational leader is there
brilliant oratical capability (Kim, 2016). The characteristics of Dr King as an influential speaker
has been demonstrated in the very last scene of the film. This characteristics is responsible for
the leader's capability to effectively connect with the people and influence their thought process.
The tone of speaking is also another important feature, which ensure that the inner message of
the speech is effectively transferred to the audience. This capability of Martin Luther King has
easily helped him to become popular within the African American community. He was not only
seen as a person to able to understand the present situation, but also have the ability to predict the
future and have a strong faith within the people for making the Civil right movement a success.
With the beautiful portrayal of the leadership style of Dr Martin Luther King in the
movie, Selma was one of the popular film of 2014. For its beautiful and brilliant portrayal of
leadership style, the movie got 4 nominations in Golden Globe award including the best motion
picture, best director and best actor. It was also nominated for the best picture in Academy
Award and won the best original song.
Another important characteristics of the film is that it did not portrait the actual
murdering scene of Martin Luther King. Instead as the movie was ending important information
was displayed for the viewers. With brilliant treatment of historical event, it will be easily
possible for every audience of the movie to easily connect with the leadership and influential
style of Martin Luther King and understand the importance of his Movement in the context of the
American Civil movement.

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Reference
Hellmann, D. C. (2016). America, APEC, and the road not taken: International leadership in the
post-Cold War interregnum in the Asia-Pacific. In From APEC to Xanadu: Creating a
Viable Community in the Post-Cold War Pacific (pp. 70-97). Routledge.
Kim, N. K. (2016). Revolutionary leaders and mass killing. Journal of Conflict Resolution,
0022002716653658.
Selma's refreshing portrayal of leadership. (2018). Theweek.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018, from
http://theweek.com/articles/531504/selmas-refreshing-portrayal-leadership