John Legend Uses ‘Glory’ Best Original Song Win To Discuss America’s Prison Problem

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

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Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

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February 23, 2015

By Jessica Goodman, the Huffington Post

“Glory” from “Selma” won Best Original Song at the 2015 Oscars on Sunday night. John Legend and Common accepted the award after performing a moving rendition of the song to a tearful audience. “‘Selma’ is now because the struggle for justice is right now,” Legend said.

John Legend (L) and Common accept their Academy Award

He continued with a politicized message and mentioned America’s staggering incarceration rate: “We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now, the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850. We are with you, we see you, we love you and march on,” he concluded.

It was a huge win for “Selma,” which made waves when its director Ava DuVernay was snubbed for a Best Director nod. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

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