Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Historical Perspective

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE provides a brief overview of the beliefs, words, practices, and enduring legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights protests of the 1950s and '60s. Narrated by Arthur Burghardt, this 1994 documentary connects Dr. King's background in the church and his study of Mahatma Gandhi's practices of nonviolent protest and how they influenced his struggles as he emerged as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. The documentary shows how Dr. King's actions were part of a larger struggle for equality that grew in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and how the boycotts and nonviolent protests he led, in conjunction with the growing availability of television around the country, showed the rest of the United States that Civil Rights protestors endured brutal violence from the Birmingham Police Department and its infamous Police Chief Bull Connor. It shows how these actions and growing protests led to the March on Washington, DC in 1963, and the immortal "I Have a Dream" speech. While Dr. King was instrumental in the passage of landmark Civil Rights and voting rights legislation in the mid-1960s, he began to shift to a broader focus than the injustices of the Deep South, speaking out against the Vietnam War as well as the injustices of poverty and substandard housing throughout America. He continued to practice and preach nonviolence throughout his life, even as he was stabbed, jailed, and his house bombed by White supremacists, and even as younger leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, frustrated with continued injustice and the brutal and at times murderous reprisals from law enforcement and White supremacists, advocated for responding to violence in kind. After his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee in April, 1968, the documentary discusses Dr. King's lasting legacy in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement.