Set in one of the most revolutionary periods in both Alabama and American history, Selma follows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the days leading to the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. As the marchers approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, violence erupted, sparking a grim, yet crucial conflict that shook the nation and led to Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.