Citizen King, PBS documentary:
American Experience presents Citizen King, a two-hour PBS documentary to commemorate the 75th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is a film directed by Orlando Bagwell and written by W. Noland Walker. Dr. Martin Luther King was a preacher who mesmerized millions with his dream for an America free from the clutches of racism. Through his powerful oratory skills, Dr. Martin Luther King captured the minds and hearts of an entire nation and provided great impetus to the civil rights movement. The movie traces the events that made Dr. Martin Luther King a mythic figure by a detailed exploration of the last five years of King’s life. Thus the movie begins in 1963 when Martin Luther King delivered his famous speech in Washington D.C. and ends in Memphis, TN in 1968 when he was killed. To be more specific the movie traces the life of Martin Luther King Junior from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 to a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. The authenticity of the movie is built using shared thoughts and feelings from King’s closest colleagues, journalists, historians, and scholars, as well as employees of the U.S. government in the form of rare news footage and interviews. In the making of this movie, the film makers have also relied on personal recollections, diaries and letters of Dr. King. Citizen King, broadcast on PBS was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival as part of a special screening on January 19, 2004.
Synopsis:
Dr. Martin Luther King Junior is delivering his famous speech before a huge crowd of two hundred thousand people gathered at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial on August 1963. The speech was widely televised throughout the nation and millions of people watched it on television. With passion and power, Dr. King put forth his dream of a nation free from racism: He urges the crowd that now is the time to rebel against racism and make “justice a reality for all of God’s children.” The speech which later on came to be known as the “I have a dream” speech marked a crucial point in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. This was the peak of his success as a civil rights activist and orator. However, this was also the beginning of a lonely struggle to lead the civil rights movement in the right direction. This was a struggle he had to face for the rest of his life, until his death five years later.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was one of the most popular leaders in the twentieth century. People who had the opportunity of moving closely with him felt a certain power inherent in his personality and in his words. The lyrical poetry in his words and the power of his convictions mark Luther King as a man not to be ignored. Andy young and James Bevel brought in school students into the demonstration. The impact of what a powerful person Dr. King was in the eyes of the public is well brought out through the words of Michael Dizaar “The words just stayed there in the air, you know, as he talked”.
He was a man who tried to transform and restructure the whole of American society by taking a holistic view on issues. He often took brave steps that he honestly felt would lead to a speedier solution. Realizing that Birmingham was the hotspot of racism, he decided to risk his life by going there, despite warnings. His decisions were not always popular and many of them alienated his closest friends and angered his enemies.
When he started to express protest against the war in Vietnam, and started on a mission of fighting for the poorer people of America, he was accused of abandoning his main commitment to the black community. However, for Dr. Martin Luther King, this role as a citizen king was more suited to his temperament then the public persona he had assumed in the cause of racism, a few years back. He traveled to many places to meet people and listen to their grievances.
Once, in April 1968, King decided to go to Memphis, Tennessee to support a strike of garbage workers. At that time he was on a Poor People’s Campaign and he went to Memphis much against the wishes of his advisors. He felt that his life mission was to help the poor and working-class people. However, this decision of Dr. Martin Luther King proved to be dangerous and lead to his assassination.
After spending two weeks traveling with King in 1967, the journalist David Halberstam observed, “Dr. King has decided to represent the Ghettos… he will work in them and speak for them. If King is to speak for them truly, then his voice must reflect theirs; it, too, must be alienated, and it is likely to be increasingly at odds with the rest of American society.”
Citizen King shows that the courageous decision of Dr. King to stand for all kinds of oppression antagonized both the white American leadership and the influential black leaders. This was a personal crusade for economic justice and a call to end the war in Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther King and his family had to face several death threats on a daily basis. While he raised several questions on the integrity of the nation and its value changes, pointing out to the nation’s preoccupation with material gain. The silence of his fellow clergymen infuriated and frustrated him. However, he chose to remain spiritually committed to the goal he had undertaken: to fight for the human rights of all people and try to find solutions through non-violence and creative peacemaking. The director Bagwell says about the movie Citizen King: “This is not a film about the last days of a great leader,” says Bagwell. “Rather, it is the story of a man losing fear, gaining courage and becoming great.”
Discussion:
· What it means:
The movie “Citizen King” shows that it’s very difficult for a leader to take multiple causes and fight. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used boycotts, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest to demand equal treatment under the law and an end to racial prejudice. Dr. King, had to stuck to the cause of racism, would have got great approval among the black community. However, by broadening his view to include the oppressed people of the country, he was forced to fight for getting economic justice both for the black and for the white people who were poor and dispossessed. This would have naturally antagonized the richer sections of both the communities. Next, in taking up the cause of the Vietnam War, Dr. King took a stand against the government. This again would have created conflict with government leaders who might have supported his fight for equality and justice.
Dr. Martin Luther King also assumed too many roles in his life – roles that sometimes conflicted with each other. His role as a political activist required him to organize marches, protests, and boycotts in various please. His role as a clergyman seemed to go against it as many clergymen felt that as a preacher he should just talk about Jesus Christ and the Bible.
According to Dr. Martin Luther King he believed more in following the inner meaning of the Bible rather than just preaching the contents of the Bible. In the movie we find him saying “I have long since learned that being a follower of 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!” It is unlikely that many of his followers understood the philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King.
· Possible solutions:
Possible solutions to the conflicts that Dr. Martin Luther King faced would be to make him understandable from the public view point. William Gray, family friend gives the key to understanding orator, civil rights leader and political leader Dr. Martin Luther King is by seeing him as a minister first. This meant Dr. King was first a devout Christian who preached his religion to the people.
Journalist David Halberstam and SCLC Board Member Victoria have opined that Martin Luther King in fact did not desire a life in the limelight but rather he felt called to the path. This shows that he did things that he was not comfortable with. This was a major drawback. Again he was not comfortable handling success too. Dr. King got great and positive feedback at Washington. However he confessed that felt very subdued as it laid an extra burden on him. 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.” He was a man under great stress. When many people opposed him, Dr. King began to have self-doubts. He confessed to 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?” This shows that personally Dr. King was not as strong and confident as he outwardly was. Moreover, he was very much affected by the assassination of John F. Kennedy as he sadly remarked: “This is a 10-day nation. That in 10 days, we’ll be back to business as usual”. This shows that he was a sensitive soul in torment. A more ruthless streak in him would have spared him such agonies.
In an interview, Dr. Martin Luther King says that he was there to assess the situation and determine whether demonstrations are necessary. This shows his inclination towards non-violence. Non-violent methods of protest and marches were not effective in some places such as Chicago. If Dr. Martin Luther King had projected himself as a religious leader with a political interest, he probably would have won the approval of the clergy, and the people.
At Birmingham, Martin Luther King was considered a troublemaker in the eyes of the press, an enemy by KKK rally activists. He should have used the press to better advantage, by writing more columns and articles in common newspapers.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s followers were based on the immediate cause of his fights –He should have nurtured a movement based on his philosophy of justice. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Limitations to solutions:
Whatever be the solutions, standing for a right cause at the right time is indeed a difficult decision. Dr. King did the best he could to stand for the highest human values and tried to live life by the Bible. In his fight for justice and equality, he used non-violent methods and believed that society would respond positively to a call based on feelings and passion. That he was often let down is more a commentary on the society at that time rather than a weakness on his part. The limitations of the above solutions are that they do not help in bringing about a change in society. As long as there is no such change, Dr. King would remain misunderstood – a right man at the right time – in the wrong place.
Bibliography:
PBS (2007). Citizen King. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/
Bagwell and Walker. Citizen King. PBS Documentary.
