King (2011) s01e01 Episode Script

Gonna walk on the water? Uncle chicken wing! Uncle chicken wing come all the way down here to save us! No! Everything's gonna be all right! - What is going on?! - There's some trouble, but we're getting it under control! What are you talking about?! Let's get him outta here! Maybe it'll be all right.
No.
No, it isn't going to be all right.
Let's get him out of here! Get back! Get back! Get back! We need your car.
Come on! Come on! Get him out of here! Get him out of here! - Get in! - Come on.
Detective Redditt.
Follow me, I'll get you through.
The boy's dead, all right.
- How'd it happen? - The usual thing.
They say he attacked a police officer.
He came out with his hands over his head.
- What happened?! - That's what nobody seems to know.
You told us it was all in hand.
We prepare for these things.
I have never seen most of the men who were pushing Dr.
King! What do you mean, you've never seen them before? That's what I mean.
Some of them I have never seen before! Where's Martin? He's in there.
I've never seen him so depressed.
I'm afraid for him, Andy.
He has reason to be depressed.
Can you imagine what the hyenas in the media are gonna make out of this? In Memphis, people were injured, stores looted, property destroyed, terror reigned in the streets, people were beaten by hoodlums, at least one Negro youth is known to have been killed, and massive rioting erupted during a march which was led by Martin Luther King.
It was a shameful and totally uncalled for outburst of lawlessness undoubtedly encouraged, to some considerable degree at least, by his words and actions.
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.
There was also heated comment They're so happy.
about the disruption of the march in Memphis and has coined the nickname for him - They're so happy.
- of Martin Loser King.
They're destroying him out there.
I knew they would! And they're doing it.
Dad, you have to control yourself.
You can't let him see you feel this way.
How can you be non-violent with such brutes? With such scoundrels! You have to show 'em that you know what they are, and you've gotta stand up to them! Dad, go to him and ask him to come out.
I can't.
He won't listen to me anymore.
I can't.
I can't go in there to him.
I have a beautiful son, and they're destroying him.
I knew they would! It wasn't your fault.
Yes, it is.
How can you say that? I shouldn't have allowed one person to march in that protest unless they'd accepted non-violence.
I should have understood the depth of those young people's bitterness towards me.
Martin, you can't be responsible for every demonstration that goes wrong in this country.
And what Byrd said on the floor of the senate that I was responsible for people being killed, that I lovingly break the law like a boa constrictor.
Now, since when have you cared what he says about you? It isn't him, Cory.
It's the others.
It's our own young people that hurt the most.
Are you going to Louisville? I have nothing to tell 'em.
Martin these are the same people who have always attacked you.
They're the ones who never fought till you spoke up.
They just want to be Martin Luther King.
They're not offering anything constructive, you know that.
And you know what they are.
Maybe I should let them have their way.
Maybe we should let violence take its course.
I know it's wrong, I know it's not going to work, but maybe it has to be.
I've never heard you talk like this before.
He's not going to Louisville.
The way he's been acting these last couple of days, it's just as well.
The poor people's march becomes all the more important now.
Becomes all the more important to drop.
Maybe he's gotta go back to Memphis.
I suppose he's gotta prove that non-violence isn't dead.
- Why does he have to prove it?! - I know you never believed in it! You're damn right I never believed in it! As a tactic, I went along.
But believe in it? What kind of an idiot do you think I am?! How does he feel? How do you expect him to feel? For twelve years he's been at it the man's exhausted.
So that's all it wastwelve years.
Twelve years to change what had existed for centuries.
Twelve years to go from Montgomery to relationships with presidents, to challenge them sometimes to gain their friendship and then their hatred to have your house bombed, to be stabbed, to be arrested more than 120 times.
Would we have done it again if we knew what it would cost? And how did it begin? Hello, this is M.
L.
King, Jr.
M.
L.
King? Be nice to him.
A mutual friend of ours, Gloria McGrew, she's been tellin' me some very wonderful things about you.
Well, that's nice.
Yes, I've heard some nice things about you, too.
Well, thank you.
Every Napoleon has his Waterloo, and I have the feeling I'm about to approach mine.
Now, when am I going to be able to see you? Well, l I don't know.
My evenings are pretty full this week.
Um, how about lunch? I am free between 12:00 and 1:00.
Be-between classes.
Well, great! Then I'll meet you on the Huntington Avenue side tomorrow.
I have a gray Chevy, and it usually takes me ten minutes to make the trip from Boston University, but tomorrow I'll do it in seven.
It's nice of you to play cupid for me, but it would also be nice if you let me know in advance.
Haven't you ever heard of M.
L.
King, Jr.
, son of Martin Luther King, Sr? Who is he? You haven't heard of Martin Luther King, Sr? He's the most well-known minister in Atlanta.
He's on the board of the first black bank there.
Oh? And what does his son do? He's studying to be a minister, too.
That's all I need is a Baptist preacher.
M.
L.
King, Jr.
I'm really glad that you don't have a delicate appetite.
It's usually peanut butter and graham cracker sandwiches for me.
Excuse me.
Have you tried the pecan pie here? They got the best pecan pie! Please, please don't bother.
Don't bother.
Here's two of 'em.
Thank you.
One for now and one to take home later.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure just to watch you eat.
You're making me feel a little self-conscious.
Where are you from? A small town just outside of Marion.
Where? Heiberger.
Heiberger? What's so funny about that? One of my favorite stories is about Heiberger.
Let me tell it to you.
These two guys from Heiberger steal this pig, see? They're in their getaway car, and a police car comes over and pulls 'em over to the side.
So the first guy says, "Oh, Lord, what are we gonna do about this pig?" So the other guy tells him, "Just put your hat on him.
" Well, the cop comes over and he says, "Let me see your license, boy.
" So the guy in the back is trying to keep the pig quiet, but wouldn't you know that pig makes a noise.
So the cop goes around to the back and he says, "What's your name, boy?" And the guy tells him.
Then he looks and says, "Well, what's your name?" And the guy makes the pig make a noise.
So the cop goes back to his partner at the car and he says, "You know something? "I've always known that niggers was some ugly damn creatures, "but you know somethin'? "There is one nigger sittin' in the back of that car named 'oink' "who is the blackest, ugliest, damnedest nigger I ever seen in my life!" I always thought that was a very funny story.
What are you majoring in? Performing arts.
That's right.
Gloria told me you were studying music.
What you gonna be, another Ella Fitzgerald? I want to be a concert singer.
Really? Well That's wonderful.
You know, I never met a concert singer.
Well, I'm really not quite one yet.
Where have you sung? I gave a concert in Marion.
They seemed to like me.
It must take a lot of courage just to say, "I'm gonna be a concert singer.
" What made you decide that? I went to see Paul Robeson.
He came to Antioch, you know? Some of the people in the town were afraid to go to see him.
I suppose they felt that they would be thought of as Communists.
Imagine missing a chance to see Paul Robeson because of his politics.
So you've thought of other things besides music.
Didn't you think I would? You know, I'm probably going to marry you.
What are you talking about? It's probably just the way it's gonna happen.
Well l'm glad you think so, since you don't even know me.
You have everything anybody would want.
Courage, beauty Listen, please don't feel you have to use those silly little compliments on me.
I'm not a silly little girl I'm a grown woman.
You are beautiful.
Don't you think you are? No, I don't.
You've been hurt a lot, haven't you? Well, let's just say I'm tired of being an experimental student.
You know what it's like.
Everybody thinks you're so nice and that you're an exception, and "Why can't other colored people be like you?" There was this Jewish boy, though, he seemed to be different.
I mean, it wasn't anything serious, we were just good friends.
One day a bunch of us jumped into a station wagon to go to a music festival near Wheeling, and when we got to the city limits, he telephoned his folks.
We were supposed to have dinner together.
I asked him if he told them that I was Negro, and he said, "What for?" Well, when we got to the restaurant, we had to go upstairs to a special room because I was with them.
I just saw his courage evaporate.
And then, of course, there was not room enough at the house to put us up for the night.
He just didn't have the guts.
Well, I know that I'm going to have to put up with this for the rest of my life, but nobody is gonna make me feel that it's right.
No.
Don't ever feel that it's right.
What about you? Well, I was pretty secure on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta.
See, my dad was kind of a hero there.
But I guess the first time that anything happened to me was when I started to school.
I went home with this white boy, and I was pretty shocked when his mother wouldn't let me in the house because I was black.
You'll do all right.
Ministers always do.
You don't care very much for ministers, do you? Well, maybe it's just the ones at home.
They always seem to care more for their parishioners' souls rather than if they have enough at home to eat.
And is that all you dislike about them? What about their their cowardice? What about their upholding the status quo? What about them turning religion into the very opposite of what it's supposed to mean? Arthur Rubenstein is giving a concert this Friday at the symphony hall.
May I take you? I know you may not care very much for me, but you're bound to like the music.
My father said he heard your father preach at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
He said it practically changed his whole life.
M.
L.
, where do you get your clothes? M.
L.
Always looks like he just walked out of a bandbox.
You don't look so bad yourself, there.
Excuse me just a minute.
I'll be right back.
Excuse me.
You really enjoy them clustering about you like that, don't you? I enjoy it very much.
Beatrice is a very beautiful girl, isn't she? Yes, she is.
I think she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
Why did you bring me along? I just wanted to show you that there are some young ladies who just cannot resist M.
L.
King, Jr.
I just couldn't think I'd lost my touch.
There's a rumor about town that you're engaged to a girl in Atlanta.
I am.
Why did you say you're probably going to marry me? Because I hadn't met you when I got engaged.
Why do you want to be a preacher? I come from a long line of preachers.
My daddy's a Baptist preacher, my granddaddy was a Baptist preacher, my uncle's a Baptist preacher, and my brother is studying to become a Baptist preacher.
That's not a very good reason.
You want some more punch? Ah, yes.
You know, just because religion isn't used the right way doesn't mean it can't be.
Well, how can it be used? Well, like you talked about Paul Robeson, and you work with the progressive party.
But to really follow the precepts of Jesus would would probably be the most dangerous, most revolutionary thing in the world.
Are you gonna try it? Me? I'm just a middle class preacher's son.
But if anything is gonna start with our people, it's gonna have to be through the church.
What do you mean? Well, it's all our people have.
It's about the only thing they can call their own, and it's the only place where anybody's gonna be able to reach 'em.
You've thought about it a great deal, haven't you? I even know the kind of congregation I want.
It has to be a large one so it has an impact on the community, and it has to be in the South.
Why the South? Well, that's where I'm from.
And that's where they need me the most.
You're so bright seems to me you'd be able to do anything you want to do.
In the South, you'll just be another black man.
Well, you see them guys standing over there? Those are the most improbable white men you'll ever see in your life.
They are so busy running away from everything that they are.
I'm not gonna run away from the South and the people I've known all my life.
I have no ambitions outside of being a good pastor.
I enjoy pastoring.
What's the matter? I'll never be the kind of wife you want.
I'll be your girl while school lasts, and then we'll go our separate ways.
But I feel too strongly about you.
Don't you feel that way about me? Could you take it if we separated? Oh, Martin! Martin, you're asking me to give up my life to give up everything that's important to me.
The last thing in the world I need is an emancipated woman who wants to sing with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
Sometimes life doesn't give us any choice.
But it does.
You always have a choice.
Maybe you are right.
Perhaps we should just stop seeing each other.
I'm going to Atlanta next week.
I want you to come with me to meet my parents, or I'll never see you again.
The Bible refers to prayer about 500 times.
To faith, less than 500 and to material possessions about 1,000 times.
Now, I wonder if anybody ever said to Jesus, "Lord, you emphasize money too much.
" I think an "amen" belongs in there somewhere.
Amen.
Now, I have asked you all to sign your names on these envelopes in which you put your contributions.
And I've been checking up on you.
Brother Perkins Do you think a man with a business like you have can only afford to give fifteen dollars? And what about you, brother Washington? I understand that you are a singer.
That's right.
Do you know There's a Balm in Gilead? Well, I'm studying to be a concert singer.
A concert singer? The only way you can help my son is to sing in the choir.
Well, I can sing in the choir and still have my own career.
Have you talked to her about this? Well, Dad what about Adam Clayton Powell and Hazel Scott? They're doing fine, aren't they? You ain't Adam Clayton Powell! And she's not Hazel Scott, as far as I can see.
Not yet.
How well do you know this young man? Well, we've known each other a few months.
He will give the last penny out of his pocket to any beggar coming down the street If you don't watch him.
He doesn't understand about money, he never has.
He doesn't understand that money is freedom! It can be.
It can also make you a slave.
He's gone out with the finest girls.
Beautiful girls.
Intelligent, fine families.
I'm sure he has.
He gets serious every other week.
Now, we love people.
We like to be nice to everyone.
But we don't know how to act.
It must be very difficult for you.
There's one girl, a girl from one of the finest families in Atlanta.
We've grown to love this girl.
She has a lot to offer.
I have something to offer, too.
You didn't say a word during all that.
He embodies in one person everything I've ever tried to run away from.
You heard his sermon.
Cory, he is a tyrant, but he is a lovable tyrant.
I don't find him so lovable.
His father was a sharecropper, and one of his duties was to curry the mule.
He had to go to school with the hairs of the mule and the smell of the mule on him the kids would make fun of him.
He said, "Well, I may look like a mule.
"I may even smell like a mule.
But I don't think like a mule.
" He came to Atlanta with fifteen cents in his pocket, he married the most prominent minister's daughter, and not only that, he ended up taking over his father-in-law's congregation.
I don't find that so admirable, Martin.
He's also never let anybody call him "boy," he's never ridden on the back of a bus, and he has done more in this town to break segregation than any other clergyman.
Well, why don't you marry him? Cory, don't you think I know his faults better than anybody? I've seen him be a terrible taskmaster with my brother.
I've seen him dominate my sister's life, I Well but he's my father, and I can't change that, now, can I? And I love him I love him very much.
Are you sure he won't dominate you? Cory, nobody is gonna dominate me.
And I'm not gonna change anything by standing up to him and proving that he is wrong.
See, time will do that.
And I know that in time, he'll be a big enough man to admit that he's wrong.
It must be very hard on you, working and going to school at the same time.
No not so hard.
Have some coffee.
All right you're gonna be in the family.
Well I hope you're going to accept me as that.
I accept you because you're his choice.
I respect his opinion and his choice.
My name is Rosa Parks.
Many people have questioned why I refused to give up my seat on that first day of December, 1955.
Some said we staged my arrest because I was a member of the local NAACP.
Some said it was because of the bus driver who had put me off the bus years before.
Others said my feet hurt and I was just too tired to get up.
Yes, I was tired, but I had been tired before.
Y'all better make it light on yourself and let him have your seat.
I said to get up.
Are you gonna get up? Because if you don't get up, I'm gonna call that policeman out there and have you arrested.
Go on and call him.
There's a word called "zeitgeist" which is the force that brings together destiny and time.
After witnessing and suffering years of indignities, the spirit of time had tracked me down.
I simply had had enough.
Did the driver ask you to stand up? Yes.
Why didn't you stand up? Do you think it's right that I should have to stand up after I got on the bus and took a seat? I don't know.
But the law is the law, and you're under arrest.
I want to pay Mrs.
Parks' bail.
Read what you have.
"Another Negro woman has been arrested and put in jail "because she refused to give up a bus seat.
"Don't ride the bus to town, to work, to school "or anywhere on Monday.
"If you work, take a cab, share a ride, or walk.
"Come to a mass meeting Monday at 7 P.
M.
At the Holt Street Baptist Church for further instructions.
" Whose names go on it? No names have to go on it.
Don't they? This is a secret committee.
Nobody knows we're here except us.
White people don't have to know who the members of the committee are.
That way, nobody gets hurt.
That way nobody gets hurt, huh? For years, washwomen have been putting their money in the church, and you people never done anything for them! Well, now you got your chance to do something for 'em.
We're gonna have to select a president.
My choice is Reverend King.
Why me? Well, I thought about it a long time.
You gonna be the president.
Mr.
Corbin, I've been in this community less than a year.
That's why.
The establishment hasn't had a chance to get to you.
And that's the best reason you have for selecting me? You're also one devil of a speaker.
Mr.
Corbin, things are very hectic at my house right now.
My wife just gave birth to a baby.
There are some programs Turned down your chance to be president of the NAACP here, too.
What's the matter with you?! There's nothing the matter with me.
I just feel there are others better qualified.
What do we have here? A bunch of scared boys? Or grown-up men? Of course, I always knew that all preachers are interested in is what's on the collection plate.
Beg your pardon? I said, I always knew that all preachers are interested in is what's on the collection plate.
I nominate Reverend King for president.
How ya doin'? I'm paralyzed.
You're a good speaker.
You're the best speaker I know.
It would be so easy to let my Baptist fervor just run amok.
Tell 'em to go out and fight, and let the same kind of violence break out that's broken out everyplace else.
And things'll just return to what they were before.
Yeah, it's easy to give that kind of speech.
Well, what would you like to tell them? I'd like to talk about the things we've talked about a thousand times.
I would like to tell them about Mahatma Gandhi and how he challenged the entire British empire without a sword, and won.
I'd like to tell them about the power of unearned suffering, about the uses of non-violence.
Cory, have I the right to do it? And how can I keep up their passion for justice without letting them do the most natural thing in the world, which is to strike back? I'm inadequate to it.
I don't know how I got involved in this.
Yes? There's a crowd two blocks long around the church.
We better go.
I haven't written my speech yet.
You'll just have to finish it on the platform.
Just open your mouth, let God speak for you.
The last time I opened my mouth and waited for God to speak for me, not a damn thing came out.
We are here this evening because of the bus situation in Montgomery.
We are here also because of our love for democracy, because of our deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action is the greatest form of government on earth.
- Yes, sir! - That's right! And we are determined Determined! to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning.
- Yes, sir.
- That's right! On so many occasions, Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and oppressed because of the sheer fact that they were Negroes! That's right! Just the other day one of the finest citizens in Montgomery not one of the finest Negro citizens, but one of the finest citizens in Montgomery was taken from a bus, carried to jail and arrested Arrested! because she refused to get up and give her seat to a white person.
And because she refused to get up and give her seat, she was arrested.
Well, you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.
Yes There comes a time when people get tired of being flung across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair.
There comes a time when people get tired of being shoved out of the glittering sunlight of life's July, and are left standing amidst the piercing chill of an alpine November.
And we are here this evening because we are tired now.
Tired! Yes, sir! My friends, we are not advocating violence.
Don't let anybody make us feel that we are to be compared in our actions with the Ku Klux Klan or the White Citizens' Council.
There will be no crosses burned at the bus stops in Montgomery.
There will be no white people taken out of their homes and taken out on some distant road and murdered! - No! - No, sir! But I want it known that we are going to work with grim determination to bring justice on the buses in Montgomery.
And we are not wrong, and we are not alone in what we are doing.
If we are wrong, then the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong.
If we are wrong, then the Constitution of the United States is wrong! If we are wrong, then God Almighty is wrong! If we are wrong, then Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer and never came down to Earth.
If we are wrong, then justice is a lie! And we are determined to work here in Montgomery until justice reigns over.
When the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say there lived a race of people, a race of black people, who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights! And we are going to do that.
And God grant that we do it before it's too late! Not one black face! That's good, but let's wait till the next one, all right? Another one! Hold on! Mr.
Lockwood.
Good evening.
Come in.
Thank you, thank you.
Have we met? Well, I met you at Antioch.
You came to speak.
I sang for you later.
You were very encouraging.
Oh, yes, yes, of course.
I'm sorry for the way I look.
I was just giving the baby a bath.
This is Mr.
Levison.
How do you do? How do you do? Where is Dr.
King? He's in the kitchen.
- This way? - Yes, please.
Thank you.
Dr.
King? Yes, I'm Dr.
King.
You photograph somewhat older than you look.
I'm Damon Lockwood, I'm a lecturer and writer.
Yes, I know who you are.
Welcome to Montgomery.
Thank you.
This is Mr.
Levison.
He's an attorney and a veteran of the labor movement.
Mr.
Levison had a Ford franchise during the war, so he's got more than enough to get by on.
Strangely enough, he wants to help us.
Will somebody get these gentlemen a chair? Would you like some of these chitlins? - No, thank you.
- No, thanks.
Mrs.
Boson makes the best.
Forgive me if I just go right on ahead.
Well, we're down here to really try to help to make this thing work.
This movement has accomplished something that's never been done in the South before.
- What's that? - It's accomplished a boycott.
A boycott is a most powerful weapon if someone can use it.
It's never been used in the South before.
The main business at hand is to get the boycott a little more publicity.
You've got a good start, and I think we can keep it going.
What do you suggest? Demand that the president come down here.
Is the president coming down here? No, but the mere fact that we're asking him will be news.
What are your plans, Dr.
King? Well, the mayor and the city council have asked for a meeting.
And I think we'll find some accommodation.
Well, don't be surprised if it doesn't work out that way.
You know that people don't give up their privileges unless you force them to.
Dr.
King, we better get ready to go to church for the social.
Right.
We're gonna be late.
You'll excuse me, gentlemen, won't you? We just came down from New York.
This won't take long.
Just make yourself to home.
- Thank you.
- See ya.
Glad you enjoyed the chitlins, Dr.
King.
You make the best chitlins in the world! Y'all get movin' now.
Ironic, isn't it? What? That this hayseed has the power to move these people the way he does.
Are you sure that's all he is? Aren't you? I don't know.
People have a disquieting habit of surprising my assessment of them all the time.
Well, you saw the way he attacked them chitlins.
Sounds a little racist, Damon.
Does it? Yeah, well maybe I am.
I'm black, but I never really have understood my people.
What other people would have stood for all this and not fought back? It's almost saintly.
And to be saintly is stupid.
There couldn't be a note of envy there in your judgment of Reverend King, could there be? Of course there is.
I've spoken in half the universities of this world.
I know every phase of black history.
I know exactly what should be done.
And I can't reach and move these people the way he can.
Who's the spokesman? Who is the spokesman? All right.
Come forward and make your statement.
We have three requests.
One first come, first serve seating arrangements with Negroes loading from the back and whites from the front.
Two a guarantee of courtesy from the drivers.
Three that Negroes be hired as drivers on predominantly Negro routes.
That seems reasonable enough, doesn't it? I don't see how it can be done within the law.
If it were legal, I'd be the first one to be for it.
But it isn't legal.
If we granted the niggers these demands, they'd go about boasting of a victory they'd won over the white people.
Your honor, I object to the presence of Mr.
Herbers here a member of the White Citizens' Council.
How are we going to make progress with a self-proclaimed racist? He has as much right to his point of view as you have.
I resent the implication of Dr.
King's remarks.
He's sayin' that this council is meetin' with a closed mind.
As a matter of fact, there are people in Montgomery black people who think your role as spokesman is responsible for the boycott's not being settled, Dr.
King.
Dr.
King represents the Negro community of Montgomery.
We have belief in him.
He has our entire confidence.
He speaks for us.
We are certainly willing to guarantee courtesy.
But we cannot change the seating arrangement, because such a change would violate the law.
And as far as bus drivers are concerned, we have no intention now or in the foreseeable future of hiring Negroes.
Dr.
King, I always thought the job of the minister was to lead the souls of men to God, not to become involved in petty social problems.
I would remind Dr.
King of the season approaching, and I urge him and the other Negro ministers to leave this meeting determined to end the boycott and lead their people instead to a glorious experience of the Christian faith.
How'd it go? Not too well.
I told you it wasn't gonna be easy.
But a Southern city council did meet with a black protest group for the first time, and that's some kind of progress.
The demands that we made were so modest.
The worst thing is I felt like such a fraud up there.
You know, I felt like I wasn't equipped to speak, that I had no right to speak.
I realize now that if we are going to make any kind of progress, we're going to have to squeeze the slave out of ourselves.
And I haven't squeezed it out of myself yet.
That little Yoki, she's such a devil.
Whenever she gets ready to burp, she gets the strangest little smile on her face.
I can see it coming, I just can What's that? Let's move to the back.
Reverend King, we have something to tell you.
They bombed your house.
Cory! - Cory, are you all right? - I'm all right.
- What about Yolanda? - Yoki's all right.
It's all right.
I did it, and I'm just sorry I didn't kill all you bastards! I'm sorry.
It's too late to be sorry! This is a result of your get-tough policy! We're gonna have to call out the militia unless we get some help from Dr.
King.
So now you're asking Dr.
King for help? Would you come outside with me, please, Dr.
King? How are your wife and kid, Dr.
King? My wife and baby are fine.
We're with you, Dr.
King! You're not alone! If you're with me, then you'll listen to me.
If you have weapons please, take them home.
If you don't have 'em, please don't get any.
I'm all right.
My wife and my baby are all right.
And Jesus still speaks to us across the centuries "Love your enemies "bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you.
" Please go home.
We're all all right.
God bless you, Dr.
King! - God bless you.
- Amen! Go get Yoki now.
Dr.
King? Dr.
King? Dr.
King, I'm Bernard Lee.
I was in an air force uniform the last time you saw me.
I came in late for the sermon, we talked for a little while.
I'll stay here in case anything happens.
I don't need a bodyguard.
You need something else.
I'll sit in a rocker on my porch with a rifle in my hand.
And anybody comes near the house, they know what to expect.
What's the matter, Martin? Nothin'.
What is it? They could have killed you and Yoki.
I've tried so hard not to hate.
I've tried to remember it isn't all of 'em.
I want you to take Yoki and go and stay with my father.
No.
No, I can't do that, Martin.
I can't leave you alone.
I want to apply for a license for a gun.
The whole town's upset, them bombin' your house.
They bombed Reverend Pritchard's house, too.
And last night a man was killed.
He got on a bus.
He was all upset about the boycott.
Told the bus driver he wasn't going in the back, demanded his dime back.
Cop got on, there was a fight and he shot him.
There's a group of men who think the only way that we'll solve things is with guns.
- They're coming here.
- Coming here? They think you'll lead them.
How can I lead them? They know my stand on non-violence.
They think even you must know now that non-violence doesn't work.
They have their guns, and we have ours! You want a gun? Here.
Take this one.
Take this one.
It's mine.
Take it.
I don't want it.
Take it! Take it! Doctor? They arrested Ralph.
Even the segregationists couldn't be that stupid.
What do you mean? This will hit the front pages of every city in the country.
They say they're gonna have warrants out for all the leaders.
Maybe we can help 'em get those warrants out more quickly.
The movement will certainly benefit from that publicity.
I'm afraid you don't know Southern jails.
Our blacks have been known to go into them and just disappear.
It may be good publicity, but don't think it's not dangerous.
Martin? Martin! Where are you going? I'm going inside.
We ain't allowin' no one in.
I'm going in.
- You can't go in.
- It's that King fella.
- Get outta here! - I'm going in.
Boy, if you don't get the hell out of here, you gonna need a lawyer! Boy, you've done it now.
Let's go! Martin! Martin! Let him alone! One more word and you'll go too, lady! Don't say anything! Don't say anything! Please, let him go! I find you guilty, and fine you ten dollars plus costs.
I'm not going to pay it.
You're not going to pay it? No, I am not going to pay it.
I didn't do anything.
I'm not going to pay a fine for an act I didn't commit.
Nor for the brutal treatment I didn't deserve.
Take him back to his cell.
Stanley, I asked you not to pay bail.
- I didn't put up bail.
- Well, who did? I have a feeling that the police arranged it.
I think they're afraid, because of public opinion, that you'd be more dangerous in jail than out of jail.
- Well you know, Thoreau said it.
- What? He was talking about the slavery of his time, but he said if there were ten honest men, even if there was one honest man who ceased to hold slaves and allowed himself to be locked up in jail, why, it'd be the abolition of slavery in America.
There were a series of arrests for minor and often imaginary traffic violations.
People who had never received a ticket were booked and taken to jail.
You're under arrest for speedin'.
30 miles an hour in a 25-mile zone.
Keep movin'! We're waiting for the car pool.
We have a law here against loitering.
is absolutely unprecedented! I can tell you this, sir Every objection that I have had, every objection that I've asked you, placed for my client over here, the treatment of this man The boycott had lasted nearly a year.
The city and bus company were bleeding leaders of the boycott emotionally and economically by one court action after another.
They had declared the car pools illegal.
Now they were claiming that the boycotters had caused the bus company undue damage and that they had to repay $15,000.
I don't care what you say or what the prosecution You are out of line.
Any lawyer who tries a case in this courtroom gonna get fair treatment, but you are not to abuse this court.
Every single thing I've done here with my client over here this is unprecedented! Your honor, the gentleman from the associated press has just handed us something which I think has a direct bearing on the case.
"The United States Supreme Court "today affirmed the decision of a special three-judge "United States district court "in declaring Alabama's state and local laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional.
" Order! Order in the court! I believe you're Dr.
King, aren't you? Yes, I am.
We're glad to have you this morning.
Thank you.
When Martin boarded that bus the first integrated bus he he felt as though he were Columbus discovering America.
It seemed to him then that anything was possible.
- Did you see this? - What? They're even doing comic books about you now.
You are the first national black hero since Frederick Douglass.
Well, heroes come and go.
This time next year, nobody will remember who I am.
Stanley and I are working out the logistics to gather all the national Negro movements with the exception of the NAACP, of course under your leadership.
I'm not equipped to lead that kind of movement.
What are you afraid of? I'm afraid of my own shortcomings.
I'm also afraid that people are gonna expect me to pull rabbits out of the hat.
Don't worry.
We'll tell you what to do.
If I'm going to be a leader, it's because I am the leader, and no one else, Damon.
No "one" chooses a leader people do.
You might have wanted something else and we might have wanted to choose someone else but it's what happened.
Stanley, I'm a pastor first and a leader second, if at all.
I'll go anywhere you want and speak, I'll write about my experiences, but Martin, I wish you could.
People think that revolutions start with an injustice.
They don't they begin with hope.
There are bus boycotts now in Jacksonville, Nashville, Greensboro There's even one in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Something has started and you may be the only one to make the rest of it happen.
Hold on, Dr.
King will sign all your books.
Just a minute, just give him time! Dr.
King'll sign all your books, just give him time.
Don't try to get in front of the lady, sir.
Just stand right there, he'll sign it.
Just a minute, darlin', just a minute.
- Dr.
King? - Yes? I've been looking for you for such a long time.
Is there a doctor here?! Get a doctor! - Doctor! - Don't touch him.
Don't touch me till the doctor gets here.
Just wait for a doctor.
The knife was touching the aorta.
We had to remove two ribs in order to get the knife free.
Is he all right? Yes, unless complications set in.
It is so delicate if he would have sneezed, he would have died.
Can I go in to see him? For a moment.
Don't let him speak too much.
He's been calling for you all night.
Cory, what took you so long to get here? I took the first plane from Atlanta, darling.
Don't speak.
Why did she do it? She said that that you were the Devil and that God had asked her to get rid of you.
So many lies being written so much hysteria, so much violence in this country.
I want to thank you all for the kind letters and wonderful flowers that you sent me while I was ill.
As you know, Mrs.
King and I recently went to India.
Now, we may go to other places as tourists, but we went to India, because of Mahatma Gandhi, as pilgrims.
See, Gandhi teaches us that violence does not overcome evil.
It may suppress it for a time, but only to arise later with redoubled vigor.
But non-violence, on the other hand, seeks to put an end to evil by converting the evildoer.
While we were there, we met Nehru, and Nehru said that one of Gandhi's last public statements was to a group of visiting American blacks.
He said there was no dishonor in being a slave, but there was dishonor in being a slave owner.
But Nehru said something else.
He said that Gandhi said something most that was most curious.
He said that it may be through the American Negro that the unadulterated message of non-violence is delivered to the world.
Well, a leader is needed.
I doubt that I am that person.
I have the gravest doubts, I I must reorganize my life, reorient my personality I've been being unfair to you.
You need a full-time pastor.
Mrs.
Boson, you need somebody from the church to come see you when you're not feeling well.
You need someone to go into those prisons when your children are in trouble.
You know, we all need somebody to talk to when our marriages aren't going the way they should.
Being here has been the happiest time of my life.
But I submit my resignation as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, to become effective on the fourth Sunday of January.
Blessed be The tie that binds Our hearts In Christian love The fellowship Of kindred minds Is like to that above We share Our mutual woes Our mutual burdens bear And often For each other flows A sympathizing tear What did they do to you? Well, Dad, they had to take out two ribs.
But I'm feeling fine now.
Where'd you get this non-violence from? You didn't get it from me.
You must have got it from your mama.
It's all right to turn the other cheek, but what you gonna do when you don't have any cheeks left? You don't get things done goin' the way you're goin'.
I've fought everything in this town, and I know what you've got to do.
You don't move from weakness you move from strength.
And you protect yourself don't make yourself a target.
It's better to be a live dog than a dead lion.
- Are you listening to me?! - Yes, I'm listening.
But you're not listening to me! Let me ask you something.
Now that we got this national movement going, do you think the parishioners are gonna understand that I can't be at church full-time? Well, they want you under any conditions, and you know that.
- There's that big noise! - Hey, Mike! Well, it's a wonder you showed up.
What are you talking about? He's been in another fight.
I told you, A.
D.
, if you can't help us, don't hurt us.
Now, look at you.
I'm ashamed of you.
I'm ashamed that you are my son! I thought you were going on a diet.
A.
D.
, if we're gonna make it in this world, we're gonna have to have the brains of Einstein, the language of Ralph Bunche, and the looks of Marilyn Monroe.
Come on.
Let's go see what mother dear is having for dinner.
Hello, Martin.
This is Mrs.
Mazer.
How do you do, Dr.
King? It's an honor.
I'd like you to see the garden.
Cory, what are we doing in this place? We do have to have someplace to live.
We couldn't even afford the drapes in here.
Daddy said he's gonna make the down payment.
You said Dr.
King likes barbecues.
We have a built-in barbecue in the back.
What's the matter? The black bourgeoisie always ripping off black people.
Charging them all those fat fees for doctor bills, for food bills, and for mortgages.
Of course they are, but we've got to have a house.
Not in Collier Heights, we don't.
I don't want it.
Well, what do you think of it, Bernard? Well Think we can find some ways to improve this place? The only way we can improve this place is to dynamite it.
Cory, darling, what do you think? It would take as much to improve this place as it would to live someplace decent.
Well, I like it.
It's only two blocks from the church.
I bought it.
It was a steal.
You know what Karr's department store is like.
It's practically an institution in Atlanta.
If we can desegregate it, then surely every other store will follow.
We don't think that Dr.
King should become involved in local fights.
No? Well, just what kinds of fights do you think he should become involved in? What's the matter? Does your father have too many friends here? You speak about Gandhi.
Gandhi was always in the forefront of the battle.
He was always exposing himself to danger.
Don't you think my husband exposes himself to enough danger?! He's gone all over the country for SNCC, and you know it! Whenever you get in trouble, you call on him, and then when he comes, you criticize him for taking all the publicity! You know what happens in Karr's.
It's the finest department store in the southeast, and black people are degraded every time we come into it.
Five restaurants, and we have to eat in the cafeteria.
I took my little nephew there to buy a suit they don't let black people try on clothes for fear it'll rub against a white person's body.
They measured him with a ruler.
While we were there, a white woman came in with her little boy to buy a suit and some shoes.
When my little nephew looked at that, I could tell it scarred him for the rest of his life.
It's King! It's Dr.
King.
It is? We'd like to be served.
We don't serve nigras here.
There's a restaurant downstairs where nigras are served.
We'd like to be served in this restaurant.
I'm glad you're here.
They're at it again today.
You know you're trespassing on private property.
I'll give you ten seconds to leave.
All right, arrest the niggers.
Everybody out! Hey, we're leaving.
Come on, let's go.
We can play this at home.
Except Dr.
King.
What? Now, I don't leave without Dr.
King.
It's all right, Bernard.
I'll be all right.
Now go on.
Where's Martin? He ain't out yet.
Why not? What's goin' on? Where is Martin? What are you doing out, and not him? They let us all go except him.
I didn't wanna go.
None of us wanted to go without him.
He made us.
Where's Martin? They're holding him without bail.
Why? They say that he's broken probation for an old traffic violation driving in Alabama with Georgia license plates.
How can they hold him without bail for that? They've done more.
They've sentenced him to six months hard labor on the Georgia chain gang.
Six months hard labor on the gang for what?! For a traffic violation?! It's not gonna stick! They'll never get away with it! They will never get away with it! King! King! Get dressed! King, get dressed! What for? You're going to Reidsville! Martin never forgot that ride.
In that ride was all the fear that a black man could have in 1959, because one knew that they could take you into the countryside, murder you, and leave you on the side of the road, or make you jump from a bridge, the way they had Emmett Till not long before.
This isn't the way to Reidsville.
Where are you taking me?! I'm frightened.
I'm just frightened they'll find him on the side of the road somewhere! Coretta.
I disagree with my son about many things, but I admire his courage a great deal.
All we can do is the best we can for him, and try and live up to that courage.
Mommy, there's someone on the phone.
Yoki, get off the telephone.
- Mrs.
King? - Yes.
Senator Kennedy would like to speak with you.
This is Senator Kennedy.
I was just thinking about you and Dr.
King and wanted to express to you my concern about your husband and ask if there's anything I can do.
Well, thank you, I appreciate your concern, and I would appreciate anything you can do to help.
I've spoken to the authorities in Reidsville.
Thank you.
I understand you're expecting a baby.
Yes.
Yes, I am.
Hope you don't let this disturb you too much.
If there's anything I can do to help, please feel free to call.
Well, thank you.
It was very kind of you to call.
They say my father was a great man.
I wish I remembered him better.
He was always going to jail.
But the last time I would see him would be on an airplane.
So I thought he went to jail on the airplane.
And I was fascinated by what was on the airplane.
Why can't we just freeze Yoki just as she is? I got a satchel full of votes, and I'm gonna drop 'em all in the lap of John F.
Kennedy.
I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to do that.
I hear he's running a very tight election with Nixon.
He needs that black vote, and he may not have done this out of the loftiest of motives.
There are times that the morally wise is also the politically expedient.
My name is Andrew Young.
In 1961, the law of the land was that all interstate travel facilities must be integrated.
On May 4th, blacks and whites trained in non-violence boarded buses we were coming into Montgomery.
The police were supposed to provide protection.
What do we do? We get out.
Open it.
Open it.
I'm John Siegenthaler.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy has Hit that nigger turned inside-out! Leave us alone! Leave us alone! We want you to stop these freedom rides.
I don't have the power to stop them.
I'm not even sure I would want to.
Let's put this in perspective.
You have a friend in this administration.
We're not so sure of that.
Would you explain that, please? There was a plank in your platform that pledged sweeping and historical fight for integration.
You pledged that you'd wipe out housing discrimination with a stroke of the pen.
We've appointed Negroes to some very significant jobs.
Yes, and you've appointed three of the most outspoken segregationists to the first three federal judgeships.
As you may have noticed, I didn't win this election with the greatest of mandates.
The extent of what I can do is somewhat limited.
You can take the mandate.
You're president of the United States! You can do anything you want to do! There are other things I want to accomplish in this administration, Mr.
Harrison.
There's nothing more important than this issue.
It's the central moral issue in the United States, and you know it! But civil rights isn't very good politics, is it? It's lousy politics.
I've been in this office many times, and I have talked with many men sitting in that chair.
The best of them was Roosevelt, and I had to threaten him with a mass march on the Capitol before he would issue decrees prohibiting job discrimination in the war industries on the basis of color.
Just so he would do Yes, that's all very well, but you see, I am the Attorney General of the United States, and right now, at this very moment, there is a group of your freedom riders in a church in Montgomery, surrounded by a mob that wants to kill them! How am I going to get them out of there?! Let them kill them.
Let them kill them! Churches have been bombed.
A minister's been beaten to death because he wanted to give support to black people.
Children have been on the verge of starvation.
What do you give a damn about those people in that church for? Because some newspaper stories have been written about them? Well, why don't you get proof for me, and then we can prosecute.
But we can't prosecute without proof.
The FBI gets proof every day of beatings, rapes, and, yes, murders! But those reports are suppressed or destroyed.
There hasn't been one single conviction! But you won't do anything about that, will you? And I'll tell you why.
Because you don't want to have a confrontation with J.
Edgar Hoover! Do you?! How did it go? The new frontier is not nearly new enough, and the frontier is set too close to the rear.
Where are you going? I'm going to Montgomery.
People think he wasn't scared.
I know better.
What's the matter, Doc? Got the hiccups? Excuse me, can you get me a glass of water, please? Just take it easy.
Hurry with that water! Doc, just Doc! Where is he goin'? He's got a lot of guts.
Excuse me.
Yes, we keep hearing that morals can't be legislated.
But behavior can be legislated.
The law may not be able to make a man love me, but it can certainly stop him from lynching me.
King, come out! King, come out! Come on out! We wanna integrate too! That King's a commie! We shall overcome Some day Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome Some day We shall overcome Some day Oh Deep in my heart I'm holding you responsible for the safety of every person in that church! We're doing everything we can.
But the general can't guarantee the safety of Martin Luther King.
Would you put him on, please? I'd like to hear him say that to me.
I'd like to hear a general in the United States Army tell me that he can't protect Martin Luther King! He didn't say it.
I said it.
I see.
You said it.
I want every federal marshal in Alabama in Montgomery.
What have you done here? Don't you like it? What's happened to it? I've been working so hard on it.
I don't need this.
I picked this place because it was in the poorest neighborhood nearest the church.
I just wanted someplace nice for you to come back to after all those terrible things you go through.
I don't want it.
You and the children can live here, but I don't want it.
Now, you just listen to me.
We are going to have a real home for the first time in our lives.
Yes and we are going to have drapes and slip covers.
And we're gonna have dinner together.
You and me and the children just us.
And we're not gonna talk about all the terrible things that happen to you on the road or in jail, or the battles ahead.
And this is gonna be someplace you can come back to, and look forward to, and it'll always be here.
And get your shoes off the bed! Here's another chapter of my book.
I'll never make that deadline.
They found Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.
Where? Buried in a dam in Mississippi.
What happened, Damon? The facts are, they were picked up by the sheriff's office, then they were released in the middle of the night and then they disappeared, never to be seen again not until now.
Their movements were known by the sheriff's office.
It must have been someone in that sheriff's office.
I wonder how some of our brave young people who are saying that whites shouldn't be a part of this movement are feeling now.
Who did it? Half the men in Philadelphia, Mississippi, go around braggin' they were the one that put the bullets into Goodman.
Well, we're going to Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Are you serious? Two white men might be good public relations.
How dangerous is it? They'll kill him.
They'll tear him apart.
Contact the FBI.
Tell 'em we're coming down there, we'll need protection.
What do you think the FBI consists of in Philadelphia, Mississippi? Mississippi boys! They probably have lunch and dinner with the murderers.
They're members of the community.
They don't want to rock the boat.
The only people relevant to them are local white people.
We have that meeting in Washington it's important.
No.
Nothing is more important than going to Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Nothing.
I wish every racist, white and otherwise, could be here today to say thank you to three boys who died two whites and one black who believed in equality for everybody.
I think it's time for a prayer.
Whenever we're in trouble, you always call on me for a prayer.
Make it a quick one.
You don't mind if I keep my eyes open, do you? Dr.
Abernathy will now deliver a prayer.
Look down upon us, o Lord, forgive us sinners, for we must all be forgiven.
Who knows, perhaps the murderers of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney are near us at this moment You're damn right! They're right behind ya! Amen.
There's your FBI.
Takin' notes.
That's all they ever do take notes.
Hey, where's that King nigger? I thought he was comin' down here! Yeah, where's that nigger at? Keep walkin'.
Where Martin Luther Coon, why don't he come down here? Get the hell outta here! Where is that little coward? Let me go! He wants to talk to me, I want to talk to him! Don't pay no attention to that trash! They want me, they can take me! I'm here, now what do you want to do? Come on, let's get him away.
I'm Dr.
King what do you want?! Say what you have to say! "There are beatings, rapes, and murders "taking place in the South every day, "and they're being reported to the FBI.
"The problem is, in my opinion, "that too many agents in the FBI in the Southern states share the same racist attitudes as the law enforcement officials there!" All right, you can go.
No, you just stay right there! "They are more interested "in keeping their relationship with the local police "and the people who are promoting segregation than they are in seeing that people are protected!" Martin, you don't know how sensitive Hoover is to criticism of the FBI! "They must be friendly with the local police and the people who are promoting segregation" Martin, you cannot fight with Hoover! Presidents are afraid to do it! "In my opinion, the FBI has been most efficient as an agency for the solution of ordinary crimes, and perhaps it should just stick to that!" Martin Luther King is the most notorious liar in the United States.
I have been handed a note telling me I should keep these statements concerning King off the record.
But that's none of his business.
I made it for the record, and you can use it for the record.
Have you taken it down, word for word? Martin Luther King is the most notorious liar in the United States.