By Emma Brown  January 15 at 5:17 PM   
Just in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, thousands of D.C. middle and high school students can go see the  Oscar-nominated film “Selma” free starting Thursday, thanks to a fundraising effort led by the March on Washington Film Festival.  

The free tickets are part of a nationwide movement meant to ensure that young people have the opportunity to see “Selma,” a historical drama about the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The national holiday commemorating King’s life is Monday.  

The “Selma for Students” effort started in New York, where more than two dozen black business leaders raised money to ensure that 27,000 students in seventh, eighth and ninth grades would be able to see the film at no cost. The tickets were taken almost immediately.