'Selma' Actor Talks MLK Legacy In South Florida

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) --  Students at a South Florida school  got an academy award experience on campus on Thursday.

Omar Dorsey, who played civil rights leader James Orange in the critically acclaimed movie "Selma, spoke to the students at Booker T. Washington Senior High School about  Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.

The Oscar nominated drama is about  the three-month period in 1965, when Martin Luther King Junior led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights.

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Dorsey put a lot of smiles on student's faces when he "blew on" to the tornado's campus.

"It means a lot to me because i'm really big on history. I really like to know my history, so it would mean a lot to me to know how his experience was on set doing Selma," said a student.

Dorsey told the select group of students about the time someone went to his school and inspired him to become an actor.

"He said you can be an artist.  He was a painter, an actor.  It was the first time I'd ever seen a guy who looked like me who said you can go out and do it.  We didn't have Sam Jackson or Denzel coming to Atlanta saying we could be actors," said Dorsey.

Dorsey said he tries to visit as many schools as he can while he's on the road, to pay it forward, just like someone did for him.

"I'm really excited that someone from the movie would come and talk to us about their experience about how they feel, about what was going on and just to come talk to us because they could've gone to many schools and they chose us," said another student.

All this as , February, Black History Month, wraps up in just two days.

Dorsey is also known for his roles in "Django," Showtime's "Ray Donovan" and "The Blind Side."

Following the talk, Dorsey will be a featured guest on "Nitecap with Peter Bailey"  which will be held in the evening inside the state of the art theater in Little Haiti Cultural Complex.

The show starts at 8 p.m.  The event is free and open to the public with guests required to RSVP by email.