( CNN ) It started right on New Year 's Eve with one prominent businessman posing a simple question to a few of his close friends and fellow business leaders : `` How can we make sure that young people will see this movie ? '' According to Bill Lewis , co-chairman of investment banking at Lazard , that simple inquiry quickly led to an initiative supported by more than a score of African-American business leaders in New York . The goal ? To provide funding that would let tens of thousands of New York City middle school students see the film `` Selma '' for free . Now , African-American business leaders in two dozen other cities have taken up the challenge of # SelmaforStudents , with the hope that nearly 300,000 middle and high school students across the country will have seen `` Selma '' in its first week . What is it that so quickly and powerfully united these business leaders ? What is it about `` Selma '' that struck a chord , leading them to launch this `` first-of-its-kind '' initiative ? It was not driven by a studio or even by the film 's high profile producer Oprah Winfrey , who expressed surprise , excitement and pride at hearing of the plan . Instead , as Lewis and others expressed to me , it was their own response to seeing the film that compelled such personages as Charles Phillips , CEO of Infor , Ken Chenault , the CEO of American Express , Tony Coles , former CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals , Ursula Burns CEO of Xerox , Edith Cooper , Goldman Sachs ' Global Head of Human Capital Management , and 22 others to shape , develop and implement their plan in a series of email exchanges over one weekend . Without question , `` Selma '' resonates strongly at a time when our country is gripped by race-related protests . For many African-Americans , the civil rights challenges of 2015 have served as a sobering reminder of the ongoing salience of race and racism in American life . The movie provides a sense of historical context for these ongoing struggles , but more importantly , reminds us of the sacrifices that made possible the success we enjoy today . The leaders who created the initiative are direct beneficiaries of those early sacrifices , and they know it . Most serve on boards of civil rights organizations and African-American and other cultural institutions and are leading philanthropists for causes that elevate African-American history and struggle . The push to expose students to `` Selma '' speaks to their desire that young people today be aware of our rich history and the continuing advocacy still needed for racial equality . It provides an opportunity for young people to reclaim and engage a critical -- though distant , for them -- part of African-American history . And it also allows these leaders to acknowledge the arc of their own journey . Many have suggested that the television miniseries `` Roots '' shaped a generation , prompting African-Americans to openly engage the history and devastation wrought by slavery and compelling our country to confront its original sin . `` Selma '' has the potential to play a similar role , engaging young people with a history that has powerful resonance for the challenges and struggles we confront today , and bringing to life the courage , the determination and humanity of a generation of African-Americans on whose shoulders we all stand .
Sherrilyn Ifill , Darren Walker : Black leaders funding drive to pay for students to see `` Selma '' They say the goal is to ensure that young people are aware of and connect with U.S. civil rights heritage . The effort comes as a result of an initiative by the National Association for Student Leadership in Higher Education (NASLEH) which has been working on this issue since 2012.