FREE AT LAST (TV)
Summary
This program documents the period from January to April 1968, during which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and fellow civil rights leaders toured through the South, planning and organizing the Poor People's Campaign and the March on Washington. The program begins with two Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) meetings. In February, Dr. King speaks to the SCLCÕs national board of directors in Washington, D.C. about the need to reverse the U.S. governmentÕs long history of economic discrimination against African-Americans. At another meeting, SCLC staff meet with a number of field organizers to discuss recruiting for the campaign and other logistics. An important part of the preparation for the campaign is the nonviolence workshops, during which the Reverends James Bevel, Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., explain why they view nonviolence as a powerful tool. During the next portion of the program, Dr. King is shown as he begins the organizing and recruiting tour. The program also includes informal discussions on the violence and death threats that Dr. King and protest marchers faced, planning sessions during which Jose Williams and others prepare to meet with government officials, and excerpts of Dr. KingÕs speeches in various churches throughout the deep South. Other organizers for the campaign are also shown as they travel through southern black communities. Two organizers reach out to a community group through a performance of the song "Everybody Got a Right to Live," and a young man talks about the successful boycotts he has headed, and he meets with community groups to compile a list of grievances to take to Washington, D.C. Then, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. King decides that he will take time away from the tour to speak at a local rally in support of a sanitation workersÕ strike. And then Dr. King meets with church and women's groups in rural Mississippi during the last days before his assassination.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: March 31, 1978 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:28
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T80:0237
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1968; Nonviolence; U S - Civil rights; African-American Collection - News/Talk
- SERIES RUN: WNET (New York, NY) - TV, 1978
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- John Wicklein … Executive Producer
- Greg Shuker … Producer, Writer
- Joseph Louw … Associate Producer
- Greg Shuker … Narrator
- James Bevel
- Jesse Jackson
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Jose Williams