Whatâ€™s got Oprah all fired up?

Stars ... Selma director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo and producer/actor Oprah Winfrey participate in the ceremony to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in Selma, Alabama. Picture: David A. Smith/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Oprah Winfrey and other cast members of the film "Selma" march in Alabama to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Julie Noce reports.

OPRAH Winfrey, fellow actors from the movie Selma and hundreds of others marched to recall one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights movement on the eve of the American public holiday honouring Martin Luther King Jr.

The remembrance on Sunday comes after several incidents around the US in which unarmed black men were killed by police, leading to protests.

In Ferguson, Missouri, the site of the most persistent protests, leading black members of Congress pressed for further reforms of the criminal justice system in the name of equality.

Eight members of the Congressional Black Caucus joined US Rep. William Lacy Clay in Ferguson as they took up King's legacy in light of the recent deaths.

"We need to be outraged when local law enforcement and the justice system repeatedly allow young, unarmed black men to encounter police and then wind up dead with no consequences," said Clay. "Not just in Ferguson, but over and over again across this country."

In Selma, Alabama, Oprah Winfrey helped lead the march with Selma director Ava DuVernay, actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King in the movie, and the rapper Common.

They and others marched from Selma City Hall to Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by officers in 1965.

"Every single person who was on that bridge is a hero," Winfrey told the marchers.

Tribute ... hundreds march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honour of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Selma, Alabama. Picture: Sean Gardner/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

The film chronicles the campaign leading up to the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the subsequent passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Law enforcement officers used clubs and tear gas on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — on marchers intent on seeking the right for blacks to register to vote.

McLinda Gilchrist, 63, said the movie should help a younger generation understand what life was like in the 1960s during the struggle to end racial discrimination. "They treated us worse than animals," Gilchrist said.

A new march, led by King, began two weeks later and arrived in Montgomery days later with the crowd swelling to 25,000.

Protest ... marchers line the streets of Selma towards Edmund Pettus Bridge in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Picture: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson Source: AP

Rally ... demonstrators hold up signs calling for justice at a march in Selma, Alabama. Picture: Sean Gardner/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

Rally ... hundreds marched across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to mark Martin Luther King Jr Day. Picture: Sean Gardner/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

For Monday's federal holiday, people around the country were remembering King's leadership, some in light of the fatal police shootings that had recently shaken the US, including the death of an unarmed black teen last year in Ferguson, Missouri.

The life and legacy of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr also was being celebrated at the church he pastored in Atlanta.

'Bloody Sunday' ... civil rights activist Marie Foster, 85, lying on the ground in Selma when Alabama state troopers beat protesters demanding voting rights in 1965. Picture: Supplied Source: News Corp Australia

Protest ... John Lewis, centre, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, is forced to the ground by a trooper during the 'Bloody Sunday' demonstration in Selma, Alabama in 1965. Picture: AP Source: AP