Sheyann Webb sees Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. going into Brown Chapel AME Church one day while playing outside with her friends.

The next day, Sheyann skips school again to march and they discover a cross was burned down, which Jonathan witnessed being done by the Ku Klux Klan, but couldn't report them to the police since there are no active clans in the area.

Jonathan tries to convince Sheyann's dad to join the movement, but he refuses after her older sister was part of it and got arrested during it and she was sent up north.

Later that night, Jimmie Lee is killed by troopers while saving his grandfather from being beaten and Dr. King holds a funeral for him.

To draw attention to the death of Jimmie Lee, Jonathan organizes a march to Montgomery to present a petition to Governor Wallace to protest that Negroes are not being treated fairly.

Jonathan eventually gets released, but the gas station clerk who filled up his car before shoots and kills him on the street, leaving Sheyann heartbroken.

Walt Disney Pictures picked it up and on January 17, 1999, one day prior to the national holiday commemorating Dr. King's birthday, it was broadcast on the ABC television network.

The Philadelphia Tribune praised the portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. by Clifton Powell and the "…heart-wrenching performance" by Jurnee Smollett.

[3] The Boston Globe criticized it: "…never rises above the level of a Classic Comics version of civil rights history",[4] while The Rocky Mountain News said: "(Selma) …offers a sense of authenticity…".