Vivian boldly challenged a segregationist sheriff while trying to register Black voters in the late 40s and 50s in Selma, Alabama, where hundreds, then thousands, later marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
DuVernay's election comes well after the #OscarsSoWhite movement was launched in January 2015 in response to the Academy picking an all-white slate of nominees — the same year "Selma" was in contention.
From Malcolm X to Keith Ellison, Black Muslims have played an important role in the fight for the wider community's rights.
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