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December, 1968 Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King Christmas will be sad for us, as it will be for many people, I think, this year. But I think that it doesn't mean that we will sit around and bathe in our grief. I think that very often, a time like this causes people to really reflect on the deeper meaning of, say, Christmas or any other occasion. I remember Easter of 1963 , when my husband was jailed in Birmingham . I had just had my fourth child and was still confined to my house. And he had gone to jail on Good Friday. And I was very depressed. But somehow that was the most meaningful Easter that I have ever experienced because, you know, Easter is a time of suffering, but it's creative, you know, if it can be creative suffering. And I think if we think in terms of my husband's life and his death in those terms, then we will not be as sad. We will be hopeful because in his death, there is hope for redemption.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I long since learned that to be a follower of the Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. My Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter, before the crown we wear there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it, bear it for truth, bear it for justice, bear it for peace. Let us go out this morning with that determination.
William Gray In order to understand Martin Luther King , you must start with the fact that he was a minister. That is the key to who Martin Luther King Jr. was. If you try to take him as a, quote, Civil Rights leader or a political leader, you will miss the real King . He was first and foremost a minister.
Harris Wofford From a little boy, you know, the child is father to the man, everything I've heard about the little boy Martin Luther King Jr. moved by the hymns that said you've gotta be like Jesus.
Deenie Drew I met Dr. King during the, in the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I was amazed with his age and how young he looked. He didn't even look 26.
David Halberstam He always understood that this was not a course he charted. It in some way, almost mystical way, had been charted for him. He understood that forces have come together, coalesced, and put their hand on his shoulder, but it wasn't what he sought.
Victoria Gray Adams Those who are called and those who are sent, they have a choice; they can say yea and nay. But those who are chosen do not have that luxury. And I know there were many times when Dr. King would have chosen to say no. But it was like, you know, he was driven.
CITIZEN KING 1963 - 1968 April, 1963 Birmingham Airport
Dr. King , can you tell us why you're here?
Martin Luther King, Jr. PRESIDENT SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (SCLC)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, we've come here, I have several of my staff members here, at the invitation of Dr. Shuttlesworth and Alabama Christian Movement to assess the situation and determine whether demonstrations are necessary, that is, whether they should be resumed. We feel that... (crosstalk)
Taylor Branch HISTORIAN
Taylor Branch By the time of Birmingham in 1963 , we're eight years past the Bus Boycott. And ever since then, all the years after that had been "What did that mean? Where can you go from here?" The decision to go into Birmingham was really the first time that Dr. King said, "I'm not gonna be responding to a crisis. I'm gonna create a campaign to really try to test what we can do with non-violence before it's too late."
Martin Luther King, Jr. Consequently, I have the feeling that if we can get a breakthrough in Birmingham and really break down the walls of segregation, it will demonstrate to the whole South, at least the hard-core South, that it can no longer resist integration. And I think everybody will find themselves brought along with it if we can get a breakthrough in Birmingham .
Richard Custer BIRMINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT
Richard Custer From what I can remember reading in the paper, ah, a troublemaker. He was, he was coming to make trouble, but good gracious, way this situation was here, ah.
The Black man, we got a champion, they call him Martin Luther King , we call him Lucifer (crosstalk)
Martin Koon .
And if this nigger thinks he can stir the niggers up, I will also inform him that the White man can be stirred up to defend what is rightfully theirs.
Andrew Young SCLC STAFF
Andrew Young Nobody wanted to go to Birmingham . Birmingham was a terrible place. There'd been 60 unsolved bombings. A Black man just had been castrated just, they caught him, saw him walking down the street at night by himself and a, a White mob jumped out and castrated him. And nothing was done about any of this.
Vincent Harding KING FAMILY FRIEND
Vincent Harding The violence that Birmingham represented, people knew could easily be turned and focused on King as a representative of the Movement. So he was dealing with a decision that had to do with his own life.
Andrew Young He said, "Now, y'all think they go and get me, but all y'all gonna be out there jumping in front of the camera," and he said, "The bullet might be aimed for me but one of y'all gonna get it." He said, "But don't worry," he said, "I will preach the best funeral you ever had." And then he'd start preaching the funeral. " Andy Young was a fine young man," he say, "But he thought that he had to have all of the ladies liking him." And he'd crack on you, but he pressed right on.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I will not rest until we are able to make this kind of witness in this city, so that the power structure downtown will have to say, "We can't stop this Movement and the only way to deal with it is to give these people what we owe them and what their God-given rights and their Constitutional rights demand."
[sil.]
Taylor Branch There was an elaborate day-to-day almost plan for how Birmingham was gonna take fire.
Wyatt T. Walker SCLC STAFF
Wyatt T. Walker I created something called Project C, at Dr. King's instruction. The "C" stood for confrontation. And we had primary, secondary, and tertiary targets. And what we wanted to do was to create such a situation that the powers that be would have to deal with us.
The demonstrations were gonna build and the Black people of Birmingham we're gonna be inspired and that it was gonna spread and that the fact that it spread was gonna force the press to pay attention, which would force the government, that is the national government in Washington to move and act. Well, that wasn't working. And the number of people involved in the demonstrations was dwindling rather than growing.
[sil.]
Dorothy Cotton I remember we were under an injunction not to march in Birmingham .
Deenie Drew KING FAMILY FRIEND
Deenie Drew And Dr. King had to decide whether he was going to follow the law or whether he was gonna disobey the law.
Andrew Young The Black business community came to visit us at the Gaston Motel and they were saying to Dr. King , that Birmingham was just too tough and everybody made the case for calling the Movement off.
Vincent Harding A lot of the energy in the room, a lot of that was this energy of wrestling. What should he do? What should he do, ah, about the situation there?
Taylor Branch There was a lot of doubt, there's a lot of "I told you so" uhm, in the room. And the question is, well, what can we do?
Vincent Harding At one point, Martin simply gets up and leaves the conversation and walks away into his bedroom.
Taylor Branch One of the things we have to remember is that this is a room full of preachers, and this is Easter weekend. And that is a big time, and if you've got a church, you've got to be there on Easter. And he's sitting there talking to him saying, "We've got to do something this weekend, that means that we may not be able to be in our church." And the tension and the opposition from people like, his father was there saying, "You got to come home to Ebenezer, that's where we belong on Easter." And he's saying, "We need to do something dramatic instead." And he retreated to a room saying, "I have to pray over this," and when the door of the room opened, Dr. King comes out in blue jeans. And the fact that he came out in blue jeans is announcing, "I'm not going to the service with the flowers and the anthems and the great choirs on Easter. I'm, I'm going somewhere in blue jeans which meant jail."
[sil.]
Taylor Branch He believed in and preached in a merited suffering is redemptive, but this is the first time where he consciously chose a path to suffering. I'm gonna walk into the teeth of suffering because that's the only thing I can see here that will that, that, that can rescue this, this huge gamble that we've taken. So, he's, he's taking a step toward it. 'Coz believe me, he didn't wanna go into the Birmingham jail. And if you see the photographs of the way they've taken him into the Birmingham jail, he's a relatively small man and the cops are lifting him up by his pants. There's no respect for the fact that that this is Dr. King ; this is somebody that's gonna have a national holiday named for; this is another nigger going to jail.
[sil.]
Wyatt Walker They had Dr. King in solitary confinement, and he was incensed at the article that five or six clergymen in Birmingham had put in the local paper, criticizing Dr. King for coming, about it wasn't a good time and all of that business. But it was the always the old arguments of the status quo.
Clarence Jones SCLC ATTORNEY LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Clarence Jones He wanted to respond, and so he used the time in jail to respond. That was the so-called "Letter From the Birmingham Jail."
Wyatt Walker And he began to write on whatever was available. Edge of newspapers, toilet paper.
Taylor Branch He was so upset that he had to tune out the whole rest of the world to write this letter.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. My dear Fellow Clergymen, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happened in Birmingham . Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Birmingham City Jail April 16, 1963
Taylor Branch Dr. King comes out of the Birmingham Jail, he's written the letter. He's put himself on the line. He's invited suffering and it still didn't make any difference. But James Bevel is coming to King saying, "We're out of jail volunteers, your going to jail didn't produce the ones that we hoped it would, but if you're out of adults, I got high school students," 'coz he's holding these youth meetings.
Thousands of students respond to SCLC's call for demonstrations. Ruth Barefield-Pendleton BIRMINGHAM RESIDENT
Ruth Barefield-Pendleton Andy Young and James Bevel wanted permission to use the children, and in the beginning, Dr. King was opposed to using the children. But Bevel and Andy Young prevailed.
Michael Dizaar 16 YEARS OLD IN 1963
Michael Dizaar I'd listen to him speak, you know, and watch him just to see him, you know, how he would sweat and, and how powerful he sounded and, and, you know, just the impact of what he said. The words just stayed there in the air, you know, as he talked.
Geneva Jones 19 YEARS OLD IN 1963
Geneva Jones He took all of the fear out, even though he was talking about doing serious things here in the city of Birmingham . He took all of the fear out of you.
Jack Greenberg NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
Jack Greenberg The people and the rest of the country with the vivid pictures of fire hoses and police dogs attacking children and Black citizens were in a very dramatic way, exposed to the, just exactly what racism meant and how fiercely the South was defending it.
Clarence Jones Martin King was convinced that people of Birmingham would not tolerate police, acting in their name, slamming little girls up against the wall with fire hoses, and having dogs attack kids. They grew up in segregation and they may not have agreed with him, but there's a limit. Enough, that's too much.
President John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy As the result of responsible efforts on the part of both White and Negro leaders over the last 72 hours, the business community of Birmingham has responded in a constructive and commendable fashion. And pledged that substantial steps would begin to meet the justifiable needs of the Negro community.
Dr. King , how big a victory is this for the American Negro?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, I think this is a very significant victory not only for the American Negro, but for the country. I have always felt that a victory in Birmingham would mean a great deal in breaking down the barriers of segregation.
Taylor Branch The implications that coming out from Birmingham are very profound and Dr. King recognized that it had touched people in, in, in mass numbers. And that's why he said on the telephone to Clarence Jones , his lawyers back here in New York , "We are on the breakthrough. We have to do something that will make a landmark."
C. T. Vivian SCLC STAFF
C. T. Vivian Martin went to Washington , to lobby for the Civil Rights Bill. Kennedy said, "Well, you see, ah, Dr. King , is that I understand, I'm from Massachusetts , but I have the Southern Congress to deal with, and they're not ready yet.
Andrew Young Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph had talked about a march on Washington for years. So, Bayard called and asked if he could come down and meet with us. And that Mr. Randolph was willing to lead and organize this march on Washington .
Walter Fauntroy SCLC STAFF
Walter Fauntroy My first conversation with Bobby Kennedy , he said, "Look, you all should, really shouldn't be doing this. You know, there's so many things that can happen. Just little people can, can disturb it, that you could have the town burning and, and, and ah, it won't work."
Ramsey Clark U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Ramsey Clark I think the Kennedy Administration and certainly Robert Kennedy and, and the President had enormous respect for Dr. King . And they were hopeful about the march. But they didn't feel that they could afford to be clearly identified with it.
Testing, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Courtland Cox STUDENT NON-VIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE (SNCC) August 28, 1963
Courtland Cox Bayard Rustin and I went out to the mall about may be 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., and we looked around and there was nobody on the mall. And then just as Bayard said, "Do you think anybody's coming to the march?" A group from Virginia , NAACP Youth Group came up on the mall. And then we found out that nobody was there because the highways were jammed with buses trying to get into Washington .
Joseph Lowery SCLC BOARD MEMBER
Joseph Lowery We're just happy to see White people, Brown people, Black people from all parts of the country making their way to Washington , and coming to bring our message, which we had been crying in the wilderness for a long time.
Joan Brown Campbell Cleveland, OH
Joan Brown Campbell I was just a little speck sitting out on the lawn, and I can't honestly say to you that I realized the historic significance of that event.
A. Phillip Randolph At this time I have the honor to present to you the moral leader of our nation, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. !
Joan Brown Campbell I was overwhelmed by the power of all those people coming together. And, even in that moment, overwhelmed by the message.
Martin Luther King, Jr. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check. A check which has come back marked "insufficient funds".
[sil.]
Wyatt T. Walker The primary thing was the business about the bounced check.
Martin Luther King, Jr. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
Wyatt T. Walker The night before Andy Young and I were working on a new climax because we thought the "I Have A Dream" part was tired. We had heard 25 or 30 times.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom and justice, I have a dream.
Wyatt T. Walker But Martin Luther King knew far better than we did.
Martin Luther King, Jr. My four little children... (crosstalk)
Wyatt T. Walker He read the moment.
Martin Luther King, Jr. ...will one day live in a nation, where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
Courtland Cox I was sitting in back of him on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and Dr. King knew he had the crowd 'coz as he was gonna end the speech he said, "Free at last, free at last," and then he turns, "Thank God Almighty we're free at last." Like, I've, I've just hit a home run.
Martin Luther King, Jr. When we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and White men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join their hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
[sil.]
Courtland Cox It spoke to the hopes and dreams of most Americans. People were not prepared to listen that America was a place that was segregationist; treated, mistreated its citizens and so forth. But it was prepared to listen to, "I," well, I say, "I have a dream deeply rooted in the American dream." So he, so his affirmation of the American Dream was something that people were prepared to believe in and therefore they took that part of it and ran with it.
Roger Wilkins U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Roger Wilkins Remember, the Civil Rights Bill had not been sent up to Congress. Kennedy had just been slow because of politics and the need for the South and the re-election. You knew after that day that Kennedy was gonna have to send the bill up.
Dorothy Cotton SCLC STAFF
Dorothy Cotton What I noticed often happened with Dr. King , is when he got great feed, great and positive feedback as he did after that speech, he could become very subdued because that too, laid an extra burden on him.
Wyatt T. Walker He said, "You know, I can't make little mistakes anymore. Every mistake I make now is a big mistake." He said, "History has seized me."
Sunday September 15, 1963
The bombing of this Birmingham, Alabama Church claimed the lives of four little girls attending Sunday School.
James Orange SCLC STAFF
James Orange With all of this excitement on the march on Washington , everybody on a high, everywhere we went people was hailing us about this preacher that you all work with, Martin Luther King , and then this to happen. You know, it really was a setback.
Clarence Jones My immediate reaction was, "Okay, this is their response."
[sil.]
James Orange You know, during Sunday School, and we know who was inside the school in Birmingham ; young folk. And there was young people who had changed that city.
Joseph Lowery There were constant accusations from enemies claiming that we stirred up trouble, whatever violence occurred, "It's your fault." So when these four little girls were killed, I'm certain that through his mind ran the fact that somebody gonna put this at my feet.
Martin Luther King What murdered these four girls? Look around. You will see that many people that you never thought about participated in this evil act. So tonight, all of us must leave here with a new determination to struggle. God has a job for us to do. Maybe our mission to save the soul of America . We can't save the soul of this nation throwing bricks. We can't save the soul of this nation getting on our ammunitions and going out shooting physical weapon. We must know that we have something much more powerful. Just take up the ammunition of love.
[sil.]
Deenie Drew The day of the burial he could hardly walk down the church aisle. He was, his back was right at, instead of bent this way, he was leaning back so far. When we got home later that night I said, " Mike , I thought I was going to have to come down there and help you. You, you looked like you were gonna fall over backwards." He said, " Deenie , the weight of the world was on me. I wondered about my responsibility, whether or not I'm really right. How could I know?"
November 22, 1963
Walter Fauntroy By 1963 , November 22nd, 1963 , Dr. King had had his life threatened many times. In Montgomery , they bombed his home. He came up to New York , to autograph a book that documented the Montgomery Movement. Had been stabbed in the chest, so death was not a stranger to him. The thought of his own death, was one that often came because people were threatening all the time. But I think when the president went down, I think all of us had a little lump in our throats because we knew that if you take out, take out a president, that they can take out Martin .
Dorothy Cotton I remember seeing Dr. King sitting in a very, ah, pensive kind of mood after President Kennedy was shot. Watching the fallout and the feedback from that assassination, he said, "This is a 10-day nation. That in 10 days, we'll be back to business as usual."
November 25, 1963 Dr. King receives a call from President Lyndon B. Johnson .
Martin Luther King, Jr. But I think one of the great, ah, tributes that we can pay in memory of President Kennedy is to try to enact some of the great, ah, progressive policies that he sought to initiate.
President Lyndon B. Johnson Well, I'm gonna support them all and you can count on that. And I'm gonna do my best to get other men to do likewise and I'll have to have y'all's help. I never need it more than I do now.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Well you know you have it and just feel free to call on us for anything.
President Lyndon B. Johnson Thank you so much, Martin .
Martin Luther King, Jr. All right.
President Lyndon B. Johnson Call me when you're down here next time.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I certainly will. Bye.
Xernona Clayton SCLC SECRETARY
Xernona Clayton I used to love to be at their home. He had a game he played with each child. They had a, a kiss mark. Ah, one child had a forehead and one had a cheek, the other had the other cheek, and the other one had the chin. And what he would do sometimes he'd grab them and to give them a kiss and he'd pretend like, ah, he's going to the wrong side. And "No, no, no, Daddy, that's my side. That's my side." And he was doing that just to add some jocular moments to, to the setting.
Martin Luther King III Daddy, you're not talking.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I'm too hungry, Marty . I'm so hungry I'm busy with this dinner.
[sil.]
Joseph Lowery Martin had a great love for his family. People think it's, ah, glamorous to do all this traveling, you know. But not when you travel under a terrible, high-pressure schedule. So your life becomes turbulent and it's not your own. You belong to the people, you belong to God, and your family has to share that ownership, as painful as that may be.
Martin Luther King, Jr. All right. See yah.
[sil.]
Ramsey Clark In early January of '64 , everybody was shorthanded and I was brought over to the White House. And Dr. King came in several times, so I would chat with him first and then take him in to see the President. And, the President was anxious to hear his advice.
Roger Wilkins Johnson wanted to befriend the Movement but King was difficult for him. Martin was not an inside Washington guy. You know, Johnson loved to deal with people, choong-choong-choong, he was a checkers player, you know, move these people around. He couldn't move Martin around that way. And then there was Hoover , always sitting on Johnson's ear spilling poison in it about Martin .
Taylor Branch HISTORIAN
Taylor Branch J. Edgar Hoover was the original Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover was more popular than most presidents. Hoover had been around longer. He was seen as a great bulwark against whatever people feared, whether it was crime, or bank robbers, or, or subversives, or the atom bomb.
Ramsey Clark Dr. King was threatening to the America that Mr. Hoover believed in, and saw, and wanted.
Roger Wilkins Hoover , I think had a pathological hatred of Black people. And he just couldn't stand Martin .
Walter Fauntroy SCLC STAFF
Walter Fauntroy And his biggest tool was the Communist bugaboo. As a matter of fact, he persuaded Bobby Kennedy that he just had to have the right to tap Dr. King . Tap his phones, and put him on under excruciating surveillance.
Cartha D. DeLoach FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Cartha D. DeLoach We do receive some very disturbing news about the, about the fact that ah, Dr. King was having his speeches written by an individual who was very closely allied with the Communist Party and who had attended meetings of the National Committee of the Communist Party, and who had given money to the Communist Party. His name was Stanley Levinson .
Clarence Jones SCLC ATTORNEY
Clarence Jones Stanley admitted that, ah, for a brief period of time that he had been a, a member of the Communist Party, that he admitted. Okay? So the FBI had that information. Now what they did, though, they wiretapped all of my conversations with Martin King , all of Stanley Levinson's conversations with, ah, Dr. King , all of my conversations with Stanley Levinson . That was all ah, subject of wiretap.
Walter Fauntroy As we used to sing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn us around. Ain't gonna let Bull Connor turn us around. Ain't gonna let J. Edgar Hoover turn us around," because it was the Hoover mentality, and the Hoover rationale, for intimidating us to use Communism. We dismissed it.
From Washington, D.C. the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. , President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will Face The Nation.
Paul Nevin JOURNALIST
Paul Nevin Dr. King , it's been alleged that you have been slow to sever your ties with alleged Communists in the Civil Rights Movement, even after government officials have warned you against them.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Ah, first, I'd like to say that, ah, ah, communism is based on, ah, an ethical relativism, a metaphysical materialism, a denial of human freedom, and a crippling totalitarianism that I could never accept. The only person, ah, that they identified that had any connection with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was removed. He's been off of our staff a long, long time.
Dan Rather CBS NEWS
Dan Rather This places you in the direct opposite position of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover who gave some testimony recently to the contrary.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I would hope that the, the FBI would come out and say something that I think is much more significant and that is, that it is amazing that so few Negroes have turned to Communism in the light of their desperate plight. I think it is one of the amazing developments of the 20th century. How loyal the Negro has remained to America in spite of his long night of oppression and discrimination.
July 2, 1964 The Civil Rights Act signing to end legalized segregation President Lyndon B. Johnson
President Lyndon B. Johnson This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country.
Walter Fauntroy As we walked into the White House that day into the East Room, we were just thinking, "You know, this day will fulfill the aspirations of millions of our people over more than a hundred years, who had longed that one day, the government would say, "It's not right. Stop it." So it was a watershed moment, and, ah, every time I look at that picture of the smile on Dr. King's face, and the amazement in my own thoughts of being there; where my grandmama would've wanted to be.
[sil.]
Walter Fauntroy It was a great day.
Andrew Young SCLC STAFF
Andrew Young When we heard that Martin won the Nobel Peace Prize, he was in St. Joseph's Hospital, downtown Atlanta . I went down there immediately. And he was saying when Coretta had called him and told him about it, ah, he thought he was dreaming.
Taylor Branch A month later, J. Edgar Hoover comes out of nowhere saying that Dr. King is the most notorious liar in the country. That made the front pages. And that phrase came out, but it was a long diatribe on what a nasty person, and if I could only tell you how nasty he is.
Dorothy Cotton Dr. King believed deeply in what he was about, what the Movement was about. So, for someone to say he was ah, the most notorious liar was, was simply, deeply hurtful and I know that he was wounded by that.
Cartha DeLoach When I called Dr. King in Atlanta and ah, tried to set up a meeting between the two men. Ah, he did not respond to my calls. He waited three, four, five days and finally, I got a call from ahm, Andrew Young .
Walter Fauntroy It was Andy , myself, Dr. King ; Ralph was with us as well. We went to the FBI office. It turned out to be a rather amusing meeting because we'd come to have him explain to us why he would go public and say that Dr. King was the most notorious liar in the country. And he never dre, he never addressed the question, he just took us through a little lecture on what the FBI is trying to do and how they're trying to protect the rights of all citizens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But ah, the bottom line is that he was our leader and, ah, it was his strength that enabled us to respond to those kinds of things.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I have had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Hoover this afternoon. And I might say that the discussion was quite amicable. I sought to make it clear to Mr. Hoover (inaudible )... (crosstalk)
Taylor Branch It was a real signal of pressure from the FBI. On the other hand, the Nobel Peace Prize is an insp, was an inspiration to him becau, as a sign that the message of the Civil Rights Movement was a message for the whole world.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. I bring you greetings from many, many Americans of goodwill, Negro and White, who are committed to the struggle for brotherhood and to the crusade for world peace.
Joseph Lowery SCLC BOARD MEMBER
Joseph Lowery This Nobel Peace Prize seemed to vindicate the controversial nature of his leadership. He had been right to criticize violence at every level. He was right. He criticized ah, hatred at every level. He was right. The Nobel Peace Prize said he was right, he was right. And so, we were overjoyed. Martin was glad and appreciative, but he didn't shout for joy. He took it in stride.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. This award is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time. The need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
[sil.]
Walter Fauntroy Once Dr. King left Oslo with the Nobel Peace Prize, he came back with a, a sense that we had a higher calling, ah, not only acting for the rights of African Americans in United States but for people of goodwill all over the world.
James Cone HISTORIAN
James Cone It is without question that King did not seek greatness. He did not seek that award. And he didn't see the award for himself. He saw the award for the Movement. That's why he gave all the money away. He would not keep it for himself.
Taylor Branch As an icon of the Movement and the Non-violent Movement, it was appropriate for him to say, "This is not a tribute to me, this is a tribute to the Movement. All the money should go to the Movement." But as a father of four children, he doesn't have any money in the family. He's not making provision, he's getting death threats everyday, he didn't have a will and that put him under a lot of tension.
Martin Luther King, Jr. And ah, I'm taking good care of this check.
Andrew Young Ralph Abernathy insists that he looks at it about every three or four hours. And obviously (inaudible )... (crosstalk)
Martin Luther King, Jr. This check is made out in the Swinish, ah, Swedish Kronos, ah, 273,000. And I understand a Krowns, and I understand that in our money this comes to about $54,600. And as I said, every penny of this money will go, ah, to the Civil Rights Movement. And I think you have a statement about how it will be divided.
Dr. King , is that why, ah, Reuters had a story that said you were coming home with a bodyguard?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Oh, well, (laughs) no, I don't, I didn't know I had a bodyguard. I have never traveled with a bodyguard. (crosstalk)
Your wife... (crosstalk)
Martin Luther King, Jr. And, ah, (laughs). Yeah, other than my wife. (laughs) All right. Did you get it? (inaudible ) uh-huh.
Walter Fauntroy We went to the President to talk about where we'd go from here, because we wanted a Voting Rights Act. And I'll never forget Johnson suggesting this, "Look man, you gotta give the White people a rest in this country. Ah, you know, you, you've gone so far, and we've gotta give 'em a chance to catch up. So let's not go for voting rights."
Taylor Branch He had already resolved to go to Selma . And it's when he's trying to work forward to get a commitment to go to Selma and work for the right to vote that Coretta calls because she's opened this package at home, ah, that had, ah, a, a letter ah, telling him to look into his evil heart. You know must, you know what you must do.
Clarence Jones They had ah, ah, wiretapped, ahm, certain instances in with, ah, which Martin King had on limited times, being with, ah, women who were not his wife. But that's what the FBI had.
Taylor Branch This is a heart-stabbing moment from I don't know how many different directions beginning with the fact that his own wife opens it, and what the tape is, is it has compilations of bugging materials of King in compromising situations privately, ah, in various different places. So this really is a low moment and I think where Dr. King comes out of this, and you hear it in the sermons as well as anyone else, ah, ahm, "I've never held myself up to be a great model but I have to do the best that I can to try to redeem myself and America through the witness of this Movement.
Of what strain has it meant for your wife and your children to have a husband and father who is a revolutionary ending up in jail, being in danger of his life very often?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, it has been, ah, difficult. Ah, there has been a great deal of, ah, personal strain ah, brought in our family as a result of this. Ah, we live every day under a great deal of tension because there are still those individuals who desperately oppose us in what we're trying to do.
Andrew Young When we went to Selma and checked in to the hotel, some White men came up as though he was gonna shake Martin's hand and then hauled off and hit him. When people tried to grab him, Martin wouldn't let anybody touch him. And the police came and took him away. But he hadn't been having much like that so he began to sense that things were moving to another level.
Bernard LaFayette SCLC STAFF
Bernard LaFayette His staff was committed to one project at a time in one issue. And, ah, he stayed with it until there was some results. And the goal there in Selma was to get a Voters Right Bill that would protect people and their efforts to try to register to vote.
James Bevel SCLC STAFF
James Bevel The march primarily was to get the American people involved in the dialogue. Media will be there and so after we get off in this march, everybody in America would be involved in the discussion on the right to vote.
Andrew Young The people had organized to show up that Sunday. And Martin was in Atlanta . I was talking with Martin on the phone and I said, "Well, we have to march 'coz everybody came here prepared to march. But the police are lined up over there, and they're not going to let us march." And he said, "Well, don't all of you all get arrested."
[sil.]
Harris Wofford I heard King call for people to go down to Selma to march and to go over that bridge again. And it was, of course, a place I wanted to be.
Andrew Young So, people just flooded down but once they got there, Judge Johnson then enjoined us against marching, but scheduled the hearing for the end of the week. And the students wanted to go ahead and march anyway and violate the injunction.
Courtland Cox SNCC
Courtland Cox Snick had decided already that it was gonna continue the march. We would not gonna allow the people who beat us down on Eddis, Edmund Pettus Bridge to intimidate us.
James Forman SNCC
James Forman Federal injunctions and court injunctions have been handed down in the past and it's, really it's, people here have to make up their minds and make certain decisions themselves about what it is that they wanna do.
Bernard LaFayette Martin Luther King did not want to offend the courts, the federal courts, because we were looking to them for support.
Courtland Cox King and SCLC people debated the issue until 4 o'clock one morning. Lyndon Johnson did not want the march to take place, but Dr. King was firm and decided he was gonna march.
Martin Luther King, Jr. We have no alternative but to keep moving with determination. We've gone too far now to turn back. And in a real sense, we are moving and we cannot afford to stop because Alabama and because our nation has a date with destiny.
[sil.]
Harris Wofford When we got to the top of the bridge, we saw the state troopers lined on the highway.
Stand where you are. This march will not continue.
Harris Wofford We paused and ah, a minister gave this prayer.
Martin Luther King, Jr. America was founded on the principles that all men are created equal. Not just White men but all men.
Harris Wofford KENNEDY ADMINISTRATION
Harris Wofford And at the end of the prayer, as we got up and assumed we were going to be led into the stonewall of troops, the troopers cleared the road. They moved to the side of the road. The road was wide open, and everybody felt a miracle had occurred and that the, the Red Sea had opened and we were going to march to Montgomery . And so we started marching, singing "We Shall Overcome." And at that point, King turned around, stopped, and, ah, Andy Young stepped forward and ah, and King started leading the procession around and back over the bridge.
[sil.]
Harris Wofford As we were marching back, everyone was saying, "What in the world happened?" Then we got back to the chapel and all hell broke loose.
Andrew Young People who came South for the march were angry. They were sort of what we used to call "freedom high." Because people had gotten beat up, they came down wanting to get beat up.
Bernard LaFayette In Martin Luther King's judgment, if we can ultimately win the right to vote, let's go to the courts to preserve that right rather than the court coming against us for violating an injunction.
Harris Wofford I began hearing a number of the young militants calling him "the Lord" derisively. I don't know when the "Martin Loser King" became one of the slogans, ah, but it, it was the first time I had seen the, ah, the, the growth of that kind of, you might say "anti-King" Movement.
Taylor Branch I think to some degree he understood that he was the natural object of people's frustration. That that was part of the price that he had to pay for the position that he was in. And he's trying to get black people in the right to vote.
Roger Wilkins U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Roger Wilkins What happened was astonishing, 'coz it was on television and people were sickened all over the country. Congressmen were hearing from their constituents, and those of us in the government figure, well, now it's time for the Voting Rights Act.
August 6, 1965
Roger Wilkins And Johnson was a very practical politician. The response to Selma made him do it.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act. James Cone HISTORIAN
James Cone King believed that with the achievement of the right to vote, that the struggle for justice for black people in this society was about to be achieved.
August 11, 1965 Watts section of Los Angeles 6 days of rioting 34 people killed Ramsey Clark U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Ramsey Clark Within ten days of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, the Watts riots broke out. And, ah, they stunned the country, just picture after picture, day after day of, of, ahm, the riots, and gun purchases in Los Angeles and around the country just skyrocketed.
James Cone King was on vacation when that happened. And when he heard about it, he was shocked. And he came back. He visited Watts .
(inaudible ) Lift your hands up.
James Cone And the people were mad and angry. King had never seen this, this close up.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I have come to Los Angeles at the invitation of a number of concerned individuals and major organizations (inaudible )... (crosstalk)
James Cone And when he walked into one community meeting, somebody shouted after they saw him, "Get out of here, Dr. King , we don't need you!"
Dr. King , now we have here, I say this. Sure we, we like to be non-violence, but we up here in the Los Angeles area will not turn that other cheek.
Roger Wilkins He was booed. And you can't be human and have done all the things that Martin King had done and not be hurt, deeply hurt, and profoundly puzzled by being booed by black people.
Dr. King , do you feel that these riots have set back the Civil Rights Movement?
Martin Luther King, Jr. I am still absolutely convinced that non-violence is the most important weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and human dignity. But the fact is that, ah, when people don't get attention through normal social channels, they often go outside of these channels an anti-social behavior to get it. And that is a quest for attention in the Watts area and the ghettos of the North. And I think we've got to give these people more attention and give them more concern and leave them, ah, give them a sense of belonging.
James Cone King had assumed that the Southern Movement victories would trickle down to the North, but it didn't work like that. And it was in the context of Watts that he made that decision that he had to find out more about black people in the north and he chose Chicago .
Andrew Young SCLC STAFF
Andrew Young I was opposed of that move toward Chicago because I was uncomfortable in Northern cities. I didn't know the lay of the land. It was complicated politics ah, but also we were spread too thin. You couldn't run a movement in Chicago with the staff we had.
Charles Cobb SNCC
Charles Cobb I did not understand, him going to Chicago and felt that it was doomed to failure. I thought, you know, those Northern politicians would do him in, was, was what I felt. Ah, Chicago ? Dick Daley's city?
Martin Luther King, Jr. We are moving in Chicago at this time in order to gain our rightful place. We must not allow anybody to make us feel that we are born to live in poverty and deprivation. We must make it clear, we are gonna live in dignity and honor. That we are supposed to live there because we are God's children and if we are God's children, he loves us like he loves all of his children.
David Halberstam JOURNALIST
David Halberstam There was a certain new loneliness. He was in unchartered water. He was going into big cities where his constituents were going to be different and where he would not be as welcome on the part of an existing black leadership.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. We are here today because we are tired. Yes, we are tired of being lynched physically in Mississippi and we are tired of being lynched spiritually and psychologically in Chicago .
David Halberstam In the South, he, they had all turned to him. He was chosen in Montgomery 'coz he was young and new and bore a great, great name. He was ah, a Black Baptist Brahmin, in a way, in the way that Jack Kennedy was the first Irish Brahmin. But now he was going where there was an existing leadership that was gonna fight black leadership that did not want him there, that had its own, I mean there was a, a formed culture and he would be an outsider and they would like to keep him an outsider.
Roger Wilkins He said he was going to live in the ghetto in Chicago and one of my best white liberal friends said, "Yeah, I know. Ghetto, it's probably the only gilded apartment in the ghetto and he's going to be walking up there with money falling out of his pockets." A lot of people had that view.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Do you know that I pay more rent for that run down apartment that I live in out on the west side, than people who live in places like Gates Park ? In fact, they get five room for $82 and I have four run down rooms that cost me 92.
David Halberstam I think as he got to the dilemma of poor blacks in the inner cities. He was becoming more radical or his radical side was being called more to the surface. And I think he understood that there would be a price for the, for this.
Andrew Young When we took on Chicago , it was simply as a demonstration project to demonstrate that some of the tactics that we used in the south would work in the north. Without talking to anybody, Meredith decides to walk through Mississippi and get shot.
June, 1966
Andrew Young And it wasn't related to anything or anybody.
Activist James Meredith begins a "march against fear" across Mississippi .
Andrew Young One of the principles of the movement was that you could not let somebody get shot or get hurt doing something that was legitimate and morally sound. And of course, there was nothing morally wrong with walking down the highway.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom is not some lavish dish that the White men will pass out on a silver platter while the Negro merely furnishes the appetite. If we are gonna be freed, we will have to suffer for that freedom, we will have to sacrifice for it, but I am still convinced that there is nothing more powerful to dramatize an injustice than the tramp tramp of marching feet.
Stokely Carmichael "Kwame Ture" Chairman, SNCC
Stokely Carmichael We had planned to use the marches as a political platform and we understood this political platform will put us in contradiction to ah, King , but we did not want any hostility with King .
[sil.]
Charles Cobb Within the context of picking up the Meredith March, King really spends arguably his most sustained time in Mississippi . But of course the march is where Stokely Carmichael first utters black power and all the controversy about that... (crosstalk)
Stokely Carmichael We want Black Power.
Black Power! (crosstalk)
Charles Cobb ...swirls around him.
Stokely Carmichael We want Black Power.
Black Power!
Stokely Carmichael We want Black Power.
Black Power!
Stokely Carmichael We want Black Power.
Black Power!
Stokely Carmichael We want Black Power.
Black Power!
Stokely Carmichael What do you want?
Black Power!
Stokely Carmichael What do you... (crosstalk)
What do you mean when you ah, when you shout black power to these people back here?
Stokely Carmichael I mean that the only way that Black people in Mississippi will create an attitude where they will not be shot down like pigs, where they will not be shot down like dogs is when they get the power of where they constitute a majority in counties to institute justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I feel ah, however, that while ah, believing firmly that power is necessary ah, that it would be difficult for me to use the phrase black power because of the connotative meaning that it has for many people and (inaudible )... (crosstalk)
Taylor Branch Historian
Taylor Branch Most of the decisions along the road as they were debating where King trying to convince Stokely that the problem with black power was not that it was too scary, but that the white press seized on it ah, so eagerly. Ahm, it is not that they are afraid of black power, they love black power because this is news because it essentially says there is a war coming. The black people are about to make war. That's great news. They ah, they love it.
Andrew Young We were just having a meeting on a school yard and the school was closed and we pulled our truck of, up to service of sort, just to talk to all of the people on the march when we realized that that we were surrounded by police.
Stokely Carmichael We don't want anybody to move. The time for running has come to an end. You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead.
Martin Luther King, Jr. This demonstrates to us this evening that things still must be dealt with firmly and with power here in the state of Mississippi . Now don't you know if we have political and economic power, they wouldn't think of assembling here trying to get off, off of our own school ground.
[sil.]
Andrew Young Without any provocation, they started shooting tear gas. And I was just trying to explain to the people which way to run and I was up on top of this truck and ah, the next thing you know, the tear gas got me.
[sil.]
We'll get him, let's everybody be calm and go to the church. (crosstalk)
(inaudible )
Andrew Young There's nothing more humiliating than tear gas 'coz you do lose control and you're angry with the people but you're also angry at yourself.
Please, please
, where is he? Where is he?
What's gonna happen now?
No, nothing's gonna happen. We're going to the church. We got to worry about the people. No, we give you the news, views and... (crosstalk)
How about the people that were hurt?
Andrew Young That was a rough night on us all emotionally. And Martin Luther King saw that beyond the race question, America had to deal with the question of violence and that we could not solve problems in America or in the world through violence. That we had to find ways to resolve conflicts without destroying either persons or properties.
Martin Luther King, Jr. This is one of the best expressions I've ever seen of the fact that this is a police state. Mississippi is still evil. It is still the lowest and worse state in our union and we are again gonna make it clear that we aren't gonna be stopped. We are going now to map strategy and think through exactly what we will do.
Charles Cobb When I talked to him last about this, Stokely said, "Well, Charlie , by the end of that march I got King saying black." Ah, (laughs) ah, and he was. I mean, I do, (laughs) you know, I don't know whether Sto, whether you can credit Stokely but ah, without question, King , by the end of that march was talking about black people as distinct from the Negro people. It's a major shift.
David Halberstam He was changing. The Movement was changing. And I think he was thinking through challenging his own beliefs, his own foundation, his bedrock, things that maybe the country was not the country that he had thought it was. Ah, ah, the good America which would hear you. That there were maybe darker parts of this country and I think he was wrestling with that.
July 12, 1966 Chicago, Illinois
In the summer of '66 , Chicago had a riot. President called me and said, "I want you to go."
Martin Luther King, Jr. I wanna stop riots. I wanna see 'em end. But I must confess that the largest job with stopping riots would be in the hands of those who lead the city politically. And they... (crosstalk)
Daley ?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Yeah, Mr. Daley . I think he can do much more to stop a riot than I can. I'm not gonna ah, serve in the role of a, ah, ah, of a fire engine. I'm not assigned and I'll do all I can. But until the conditions are removed which make for riots, ah, many of our pleas for non-violence will fall on deaf ears.
Roger Wilkins So John Doar , the Assistant Attorney-General for Civil Rights, and I went out there. And we decided to go see Martin . Martin didn't know we're coming. And so we get there, and we knocked on the door and ahm, the place was packed with people, young men sitting everywhere. And soon it became clear of the people who are in the room were the toughest kids in Chicago . They were gang kids and here's Martin Luther King , Nobel Prize winner, one of the most famous men in the world and he's having a seminar on non-violence with them and he went on for four hours after we got there. Four hot hours, sweaty hours, until it was clear to him that all these kids were committed to not go out and commit suicide that night on those Chicago streets.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, we've gotta go all out to make Chicago an open city. Now somebody may say, "Why is it that you emphasized this? Why shouldn't we be satisfied to stay in our community, so to speak, and in our ghetto?" That ain't the issue, the main issue is this: whenever you segregate a minority, you inevitably discriminate against that minority. That's the issue.
[sil.]
Renault Robinson Dr. King decided that ahm, he was gonna march in Cicero . Cicero is a suburb to the west of Chicago . It was not a place that you want to go or be.
[sil.]
Get out of here!
I live in here.
Get out of here!
I live here!
Those fuckin' niggers don't live here.
Renault Robinson Our job was to watch King and to keep danger from occurring to him. Now King of course had no fear. (crosstalk)
We want King ! We want King ! We want King !
Renault Robinson Chicago Police Officer
Renault Robinson He didn't wanna appear to be surrounded by bodyguards. He didn't wanna appear to be afraid.
Addie Wyatt Chicago Organizer
Addie Wyatt As we'd march down the streets, it was disheartening to hear workers saying, "There's John ," or "There's Mary that worked in my plant or in my office." And they are now swearing at us, throwing bricks, firecrackers.
[sil.]
Renault Robinson And one guy hit King with a brick in the Cicero March and, and, and gashed him in the head. Ahm, and ahm, ah, when we caught him. Ah, and, and the police (laughs) had to help rescue him from those who caught him.
Are you hit Dr. King ?
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KINGMartin Luther King, Jr. Yes, uh-huh.
Are you all right?
Martin Luther King, Jr. I think so, yeah.
[sil.]
Addie Wyatt We had walked for, I don't know how many miles and when we got back to the park where our cars were, they were on fire. And as Dr. King has said, it was one of the worst situations that he had been in.
Martin Luther King, Jr. I think it's one of the most tragic pictures of man's inhumanity to man that I've ever seen and I've been in Mississippi and Alabama , but I can assure you that the hatred and the hostility here are, are really deeper than what I've seen in Alabama and Mississippi .
[sil.]
Why is it so important for instance that a Negro move into Cicero, Illinois ?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Well I would not only say Cicero , I would say...(crosstalk)
I understand, but as an example.
Martin Luther King, Jr. ... that it's important because it is humiliating to say to anybody that because of your race, you must be confined to a certain area.
But don't you find that the American people are getting a little bit tired truly of the whole Civil Rights struggle, right or wrong, do you sense that?
Martin Luther King, Jr. I don't know. I would say that that's true of some people. I don't think. . .
The New York Times for instance calls for a moratorium on demonstrations and marches.
Taylor Branch America did not rise up and say we're gonna change Chicago because they're hitting Dr. King with a brick and because thousands and thousands of people are marching through the streets of Chicago behind this Movement. What was distinctive about Chicago was that there was no national response. The historical pattern will, of the Movement was not to bowl over the local opponents. It was, it was to mobilize the nation to do something and they did not do that in Chicago .
[sil.]
David Halberstam By 1967 , Martin Luther King was tired. He'd not only been doing this for 12 years, and, you know, everyday the phone had rung for 12 years from people telling him he had to come here, he had to do this, he had to go there, he had to speak here, he had to go on television. I mean, the pull of all the semi-enfranchised of the very rich socie, society that had worn him down.
Andrew Young Uh, he was never sick. He was strong as a bull but he could never get any rest. And sometimes, he'd go in just for check-up. And this was sort of an annual check-up. He did a couple of things regularly in his life. He almost always right after Christmas went down to Jamaica to think about where he was going the next year and to start working on a book. That was sort of his private vacation time.
Taylor Branch Bevel went ah, down and saw him and told him that he heard a voice telling that he had to go to Vietnam .
James Bevel SCLC STAFF
James Bevel I went to up Jamaica to see him and I asked him to take a position against the war and to speak at the mobilization at the United Nations on April the 15th. He agreed in order to sort of soften the blow of all of that. And the young and some more moderate guys said well what you need to do is set up a meeting to talk to more preachers at Riverside .
Taylor Branch A, a lot of, a lot of desperate signals hit Dr. King that the Vietnam War was becoming such a drag on the, on the good will of America .
April 4, 1967 The Riverside Church, Harlem
Martin Luther King, Jr. I speak as one who loves America , through the leaders of our own nation, the great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
Joseph Lowery
Joseph Lowery When, when Martin led us into the, into opposition to the war in Vietnam , he expected and was aware that he received criticism from, from many, many quarters including civil rights leadership.
Victoria Gray Adams SCLC BOARD MEMBER
Victoria Gray Adams There were those who felt like, "Oh no, you, you don't dare." You know, that isn't, that's not what we are about. And so he said something like this, "What you must understand this, M.L. ," which that's what he called himself, "is a preacher and I have been called to preach the word, the good news, and that is what I must do."
Martin Luther King, Jr. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment and it seems that I can hear God saying to America , "You are too arrogant. If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it on the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."
David Halberstam It seemed to me that the country was going through convulsions because of civil rights still ongoing, and now the war and that every strand of tension, of division led to Martin Luther King . That he was at the center of dissidence and a nation divided against itself.
April 15, 1967 United Nations Plaza
Martin Luther King, Jr. The promises of the great society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam , making the poor White and Negro bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home.
Taylor Branch The reaction of the press was the most damaging public reaction that he had from the White press. It was one of the few times when, when the people felt that the King was naive. That he had expected Vietnam War critics to take his criticism as ah, face value for being heartfelt and for what he was really trying to say. Most people said you don't have any business talking about this, stick to civil rights.
Senator Edward Brooke
Edward Brooke My objection as to what Dr. King has done and as I said, I don't question his motives. I question his judgment in that in tying the Vietnam War into the civil rights movement that he is doing irreparable harm to the civil rights movement. He is losing thousands and thousands of allies.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Others can do what they want to do, that's their business. If other civil rights leaders for various reasons refused, or can't take a stand, or have to go along with the administration, that's their business. But I must say it tonight that I know that justice in indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Ramsey Clark U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Ramsey Clark With the war, I, I think the moral force of Dr. King's opposition had to be ah, an enormous body blow to the president. That's when I first observed him not meeting with Dr. King and I don't think Dr. King came into the White House many times after that.
David Halberstam He went from being someone whom Lyndon Johnson had brought to the White House on his way back from winning the Nobel prize to someone once he gave his speech of attacking the war in '67 and you have to pardon the language, Johnson referred to as a "nigger preacher."
Martin Luther King, Jr. And I'd wanna make it very clear that I'm gonna continue with all of my might, with all of my energy and with all of my action to repulse that abominable evil, unjust war in Vietnam .
James Cone Historian
James Cone King begins to see that what was happenin' in Vietnam was also connected with, with poverty and connected with racism and classism and that's when he begins to think about another march. And this march is gonna be a march to transform the economic situation of people in this country.
Ebenezer Baptist Church Atlanta January, 1968 SCLC Staff Meeting
What's gonna happen when you bring these same people Stokely's been out of touch with 'em, these people are still allied to Stokely , when you bring them to Washington , he's going to be right there?
Listen, I want this Movement to work. (crosstalk)
Wo, women are...
I don't want, I wanna cut down the, the possibilities of outside agitation.
Taylor Branch The last ferocious debate within King's inner circle was over whether to make, ah, try build a whole movement out of the Riverside speech against the war or do the poor people's campaign.
If Dr. King , you know, is serious in what he's projecting, it would seem to me that he has to, to be able to rally these forces to really have what you call a united black movement around the country. To include those guys who are willing to die by, by shooting, at the, at the ah, and at the cat on the, on this, on the rooftop.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Now I know non-violence will work, I know it will work. It works in, in personal relationships. It works in marriage, it works with children. And it works with Bull Connors . (crosstalk)
Yes.
Yes sir.
Martin Luther King, Jr. And it works with Jim Clark . (crosstalk)
Yes sir.
Yes. Fine, fine.
Martin Luther King, Jr. And it can work in Washington .
Yes.
Taylor Branch The Poor People's Campaign ultimately won Dr. King's allegiance because even though he didn't expect it to be embraced at the time, it was the right call, it was the next headlight, it was saying, you know, "We have people in this country who, no matter what laws are passed are still gonna be so damaged, and so excluded, and so invisible that the richest country in the world needs to take special steps.
Martin Luther King, Jr. We have to do it for our own sense of dignity, our own self-respect, our own determination.
Xernona Clayton SCLC SECRETARY January 15, 1968 Dr. King's 39th Birthday
Xernona Clayton I was home this particular day, January 15th. They were at the church planning a, a march and they called me and said, "You know, we're concerned about Doc , and said we haven't seen his laughter in a long time and we need to see that old spark again, and we think you can help us get that spark back. So will you come over to the church and ah, we're gonna celebrate his birthday. We're gonna take a break and around four or five o'clock and we're gonna celebrate and give him a little surprise.
January 15, 1968 : Dr. King's 39th Birthday
We're going to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Don't let him out of here.
Xernona Clayton Usually the staff would give him a suit for his birthday and this time, ah, ah, Andrew Young and uhm, Abernathy and Jesse Jackson and the people around him said, "Let's don't give him a suit, let's give him some laughter. Let's make him laugh." And so that was my assignment to come over and make him laugh.
Xernona Clayton We know that you, you really don't need much... (crosstalk)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Hmm.
Xernona Clayton but we thought of some things you ought to have. So we've searched around and know what's coming up for you, we thought you'd be strung out for shoe string so when you go to jail, here's some shoe string potato. We want you to have it. Then we know how fond you are about President Lyndon Johnson . And we know how you support him and everything. I've got this little cup for you and I want this back because this is mine. And it says, let me read it, it says we are cooperating with Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty. Drop coins and bills in the cup.
February, 1968 Mississippi Bernard LaFayette SCLC STAFF
Bernard LaFayette Part of the Poor People's Campaign was Martin Luther King wanted to go and listen to the people. So we had hearings. March, Mississippi , one of the first places we went.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's madam ah.
Bond (ph).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Bond (ph), yeah.
I am the mother with six kids, six children. I live on a plantation, an old piece of house. We don't know what it is to get a good meal. We go work in Ms. Ann's house for two dollars a day and if you don't want to do that then she tell us, "Well, you got to move." See where you gonna go, you don't have nowhere to go to?
Bernard LaFayette In a sense that's where the Poor People's Campaign started. Martin Luther King says, he's absolutely convinced that the rest of the world needs to hear a testimony of these people.
Martin Luther King, Jr. And I just want you know how deeply moved I have been. I've listened to your problem and it has, it has touched me and I just want you to know that we're with you and we are gonna work with you and work in your behalf. Yes, sir. I know all of you are studying hard and you're just doing fine in school and I'm glad to see you.
We're glad to see you.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Thank you very much.
Andrew Young Our plan was to mobilize people in about 15 different poverty areas. We had poor Whites, we had Native Americans, we had Hispanic, we had rural Blacks, urban Blacks. It was sort of decided that this was not something we could win but we remembered that the Bonus Marches in the Depression didn't win either. They actually got run out of Washington by General MacArthur , but their being there set the stage for the New Deal.
Martin Luther King, Jr. The other thing I want you to understand is this: that it didn't cost the nation one penny to integrate lunch counters. It didn't cost the nation one penny to guarantee the right to vote. But now we are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.
Yes, yes.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Okay, Red , see ya. All right.
FBI claimed they had three people trying to ambush Dr. King . I think they claimed they had found two of 'em.
Martin Luther King, Jr. So they were there to really assassinate me but that they could never get me as a clear target because I was surrounded. But that wasn't the scariest moment. Philadelphia , Mississippi and Chicago on the day that we marched through that narrow street and we marched about four or five thousand people that day, but they were in the trees and they were throwing so many rocks and things that I saw the policeman duck at least one time, you remember it looked like you could see four thousand policeman duck. They all went down. It was, and that's a fact. And that to me and Philadelphia , Mississippi were the most, ah, I just gave up. I wouldn't say I was so afraid as that I had yielded to the real possibility of the inevitability of death. I mean I had concluded...
Clarence Jones SCLC ATTORNEY
Clarence Jones He was ah, never getting enough sleep, never being able to eat regularly, torn by his obligations as a, as a, as a husband and a father to his kids and so forth. And, and, and constantly worrying about whether there's gonna be enough money to meet payrolls of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and you'd know the kind of stress he was under. Why ah, why those of us who were aware of some of it didn't move more aggressively, if we did it would have perhaps alleviated some of, some of what Dr. King's demons and pain.
[sil.]
Andrew Young We were on the road for the Poor People's Campaign. And in the middle of this ah, the Memphis garbage workers went on strike.
March, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee . Mayor Henry Loeb Memphis
Henry Loeb Public employees cannot strike against their employer. And this you can't do. I suggested to these men today that you go back to work.
Taylor Branch This thing started with two garbage men who were crushed in the back of a garbage truck, along with the garbage because they were not allowed to seek shelter in White neighborhoods in, in Memphis .
James Lawson Memphis Organizer
James Lawson When a public official orders a group of men to get back to work and then we'll talk and treats them as though they are not men that's a racist point of view. And no matter how you dress it up in terms of whether or not a union could organize it's still racism for at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. All labor has dignity. But you are doing another thing. You are reminding not only Memphis , but you are reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.
March 28, 1968
Andrew Young He got up at five o'clock in the mornin' to catch a six o'clock plane to Memphis and was planning to be back in Washington that evening for a meeting. And he said, "Well, you go on to Washington ." So I went on to Washington and he and Bernard Lee ah, went to Memphis .
[sil.]
Andrew Young He planned to just start the march and then go, get on the plane. But as soon as the march started people started breaking windows and throwing bricks and bottles.
Dorothy Cotton SCLC STAFF
Dorothy Cotton Dr. King felt very strongly, he didn't wanna be a part of anything that was disrupted with that kind of violence 'cause it appeared that people who were in the march or had thrown bricks and, and disrupted the march.
Andrew Young It was obviously, a planned disruption. In fact, there was some of the young people that told us that they were paid to start trouble.
Senator Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd Martin Luther King fled the scene. He took to his heels and disappeared leaving it to others to cope with the destructive forces he had helped to unleash. And I hope that well-meaning Negro leaders and individuals in the Negro community in Washington will now take a new look at this man who gets other people into trouble, and then takes off like a scared rabbit.
Dr. King ?
Martin Luther King, Jr. Yes?
You've been criticized for coming in from outside and then abandoning the march when the going got rough. What's your reaction to that?
Martin Luther King, Jr. My only reaction is that I did not abandon the march when the going got rough. I have always said that I will not lead a violent demonstration.
James Orange SCLC STAFF
James Orange And he summons all of us to Atlanta . We didn't know what to think because that never had happened at any march that we participated in.
Walter Fauntroy SCLC STAFF
Walter Fauntroy And Dr. King's determination was that we are gonna go back to Memphis , we're gonna do it right, we're not gonna allow provocateurs to destroy our Movement, and then we're going to Washington .
Juanita Abernathy
Juanita Abernathy Well, that evening we were supposed to go out to dinner and, uhm, he called and said to me, uhm, he called me Juan , " Juan , I don't wanna go out to dinner. Uhm, I want to come to your house. If I get some fish, Ralph and I bring in the fish, would you cook it?" I said, "Yes." He said, " Cory will help you." So they came over with the fish and, uhm, we cooked fish and the news was on and Martin was very sensitive about violence. And I had never seen him with the kind of spirit he had that night. He was just sad. He looked like he was burdened down. And we tried to make small talk, light talk. But every time we would lift the conversation to something lighter you could see him just sink. He was more distraught that night than I have ever seen him in my life.
April 3, 1968
Andrew Young All of us went back with him, ah, and we did meet with the young men and we did meet with the preachers and we did ah, try to help the community to understand that it was possible.
Dorothy Cotton There was, as always, a mass meeting going on where the garbage workers ah, had gathered and massive numbers of people from the city had gathered, and the church was crowded because, well, they knew Dr. King was coming ah, back to town.
Andrew Young And we went to the church saying that Ralph would make the speech, and he would, would stay in and rest. But when we got to the church and saw so many people there, we called him and went back and made him get dressed and say you just have to come on and say a word to these people.
[sil.]
Martin Luther King, Jr. We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper.
Charles Cobb SNCC
Charles Cobb The eyes were tired; I'll stop short of saying "defeated." It was really smoking and he looked something short of disheveled. Looking at him, there's a sense of being alone, not, or at least being uncertain as to who your allies are.
Martin Luther King, Jr. We've got some difficult days ahead, but it really don't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will, and He has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
[sil.]
Andrew Young He was exhausted. He had a slight fever. Ah, he didn't wanna go, but once he said it all, he was feeling good and, you know, he was sort of on a high the next day. Ah, we had to go into federal court to get an injunction overturned. And I, I spent most of the time justifying in the court. When I came back to the hotel, Martin was in his brother's room. When I came in the room he said, "Where have you been?" And he threw a pillow at me. And I was trying to tell him, you know, that I'd been in court all day. And he said, "Don't you know you can't stay in court? You're supposed to report to me. You're supposed to let me know what's going on. I've been worried all day long." And he kept throwing pillows at us so I started throwing 'em back at him. And the next thing you know, they had all jumped on me and, and put me down between these two beds, and piled the pillows on top of me. And it was, you know, it was just childish play. And somebody came and knocked on the door and said, you know, they're here to pick you up for dinner. And he said well, let me go up. And he went upstairs to his room to dress. And we were standing out in the courtyard. I was telling him it's getting cold and you've had a cold, you need to bring your top coat. And he was, you know, wondering whether he really wanted to bring a coat and next thing you know, I thought a firecracker had gone off or something until I looked up there and I saw that he wasn't there and I, and I thought he was clowning 'cause he'd been so playful and, and, and happy and clowning.
Samuel "Billy" Kyles MEMPHIS MINISTER
Samuel "Billy" Kyles Loud, real, a real loud shot. And when I heard somebody holler "Oh Lord!" and then I turned around and went back to where he was, and he had fallen backwards.
April 4, 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens and people who love peace all over the world. And that is that Martin Luther King ah, was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis .
Bernard Lafayette I was in flight to Washington, D.C. National Airport, so I didn't know Martin Luther King had been shot until I arrived.
Victoria Gray Adams My first inclination was to cry but I said, "Uh-uh. If I cry, I'm not gonna cry for Dr. King . I'm gonna cry for the rest of us."
Vincent Harding I don't know who it was who called, and told me that Martin was dead. And what I remember most was I really almost tried to punch my way through the wall.
C. T. Vivian Hard, it hit hard. And ah, ah, so I was trying to drive home and, you know, listen to the radio and, and before I got home, they told us that he had actually been murdered, been slain, been killed, shot down.
Stokely Carmichael The White America killed Dr. King . They had absolutely no reason to do so. He was the one man in our race who was trying to teach our people to have love, compassion and mercy for what White people had done.
[sil.]
Stokely Carmichael When White America killed Dr. King . She declared war on us. The rebellions that has been occurring around the cities of this country is just light stuff to what is about to happen.
People in more than 100 cities across the country respond with outrage.
Stokely Carmichael We have to retaliate for the death of our leaders. The execution of those deaths will not be in the courtrooms. They are going to be in the streets of the United States of America .
[sil.]
Coretta Scott King My husband often told the children that "If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live." He said also that, "It's not how long you live but how well you lived." He knew that this was a sick society, totally infested with racism and violence that questioned his integrity, maligned his motives and distorted his views which would ultimately lead to his death. And he struggled with every ounce of his energy to save that society from itself.
[sil.]
Andrew Young We didn't have a chance to grieve after Martin's death 'coz we had to keep the Poor People's Campaign going, and we did. We took the poor people to Washington and we made our point even though it poured down rain and we were in a mu, puddle of mud. Then Robert Kennedy got killed and we really fell apart.
James Lowery Someone wrote a poem that said, " Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him for dead men make such convenient heroes. They can not rise up to challenge the images we fashion for them. Besides, it easier to build a monument than it is a Movement."
Taylor Branch The Movement took a huge toll on him. When they did the autopsy, he's, they said he had the heart of a 60-year-old and he's 39. So yes, it took a big toll on him, and he was constantly fantasizing about getting out of the Movement, but I don't know of anybody around him who ever took it, took it seriously, who, who felt that even he really thought that he could follow through on that. The Movement was his life.
PRODUCED, DIRECTED AND WRITTEN BY Orlando Bagwell W. Noland Walker COORDINATING PRODUCER Ann Bennett EDITED BY Ed Barteski Jean-Philippe Boucicaut DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Chin MUSIC COMPOSED BY Camara Kambon RESEARCHER, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Sheila Maniar ASSISTANT EDITORS Adam Feinstein Jacob Okada Lauren Nakamura ADDITIONAL EDITING Syndi Pilar ASSOCIATE EDITOR Barnard D. 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DeLoach Roger Wilkins Michael Dizaar Harris Wofford Addine "Deenie" Drew Addie Wyatt Walter Fauntroy Andrew Young William Gray SPECIAL THANKS Bob Adelman Harry Belafonte Timuel Black John Dog(illegible text) Benedict Fernandez Douglas Moore Diane Nash Al Sampson Robert Sengstacke Nolan Shivers Fred Shuttlesworth Eileen Walbert The Area Stage Artisan Pictureworks Birmingham Convention and Visitor's Bureau Birmingham Foot Soldiers' Reunion CBS News Archives Lynn Chan , Empire Hotel Dale Dobson Experimental Sound Studio Monica Karales Jason Kirby PC Atlanta PR Consultants The Redmont Crown Plaza Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture Suite Deal Studios WABE - WPBA Women in the Directors Chair National Civil Rights Museum The Bagwell Family The Barteski McKellar Family The Bennett Family The Boucicaut Family The Maniar Family The Walker Jones Family Sincere appreciation to the "Eyes on the Prize" production teams at Blackside, Inc. and to Henry Hampton ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS Bob Adelman AP/ Wide World Photos Bettman/Corbis Burk/Uzzle Chameleon Photos Chicago Daily News Chicago Sun Times Chicago Tribune Bob Fitch Photo Daily News Photo Flip Schulke /Corbis Francis Miller /Time Pix James Karales The Birmingham Public Library The Birmingham News Hulton Archive Getty Images Andrew Levison Jay Leviton - Atlanta Life Magazine The Los Angeles Times Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum National Archives and Records Administration MAGNUM Photos, Inc. Charles Moore Black Star Moorland Spingain Research Center, Howard University New York Daily News Roger Mallach Blackstar Roland Mitchell The New York Times Company Panopticon Gallery Yoichi Okamoto John Tweedle Archives courtesy of Robert Sengstocke Time Life Pictures Time Magazine 1967 Time Inc. reprinted by permission ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE ABC News Video Source BBC Worldwide Americas, Inc. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Budget Films Stock Footage Footage World Fox Movietone News, Inc. Free At Last Filmmakers Nick Proferes Jim Desmond produced by Greg Shukar Getty Images Historic Film, LLC ITN Archive Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum National Archives and Records Administration J. 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Dunford Greg Shea SERIES DESIGNER Alison Kennedy ON - LINE EDITOR Spencer Gentry SOUND MIX John Jenkins SERIES THEME Mark Adler BUSINESS MANAGER John Van Hagen PROJECT ADMINISTRATION Nancy Farrell Helen R. Russell Vanessa Ruiz Rebekah Suggs LEGAL Jay Fialkov Maureen Jordan DIRECTOR NEW MEDIA Maria Daniels PROJECT COORDINATOR NEW MEDIA Ravi Jain PUBLICITY Daphne B. Noyes Johanna Baker Leslie Sepuka McKinney Associates COORDINATING PRODUCER Susan Mottau SERIES EDITOR Sharon Grimberg EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Mark Samels A ROJA Productions Film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in association with BBC 2004 WGBH Educational Foundation and ROJA Productions, Inc. All rights Reserved WGBH BOSTON AMERICAN EXPERIENCE CITIZEN KING THE FILM MORE SPECIAL FAETURES TIMELINE MAPS TEACHER'S GUIDE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE pbs. org
There's more about Martin Luther King at American Experience online, screen rare interviews with Dr. King , Malcolm X and James Baldwin . Explore the struggle for Civil Rights through an interactive map and share your own memories and comments. All this and more at PBS Online, pbs.org.
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