The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (VHS, 1993)

Growing up in the 1960's in Washington, DC meant being socio-culturally exposed on a daily basis to national politics. In 1963 our young beloved President was assassinated. Some will always believe JFK's murder was sped up because he was leaning towards supporting Civil Rights. I'm one among millions who remember where I was & what I was doing the moment the President was gunned down.

A little less than 5 years later, the figure head of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King, was gunned down in 1968. I'm one among millions who remember how I felt while standing before a black & white television screen as the first scenes of this awful event were broacast.

As a teenager then, I no longer felt safe. I witnessed the people I knew were what was good about politics being picked off, one at a time, with Robert Kennedy's murder just months away.

These men were part of a social changing revolution that was moving the United States towards becoming egalitarian, "with freedom and justice for all." Their murders made me feel like my country's brightest & best promises were systematically being destroyed.

This documentary, while portending to be about the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is so far reaching & insightful, it offers the expansive details that surrounded all three assassinations--because the interviewees are bright enough to view them as interconnected.

Yes, you'll learn about the supremacist shooter, James Earl Ray, who confessed to 1st degree murder of Dr. King, then retracted his confession. More significant, are the interviews of those who were the closest Civil Rights commrads of Dr. King's. Most especially, the rare interview with Dr. King's ghost writer & the author of the 1963 March on Washington vows to nonviolence: Reverend Dr. James Lawson. Lawson's insights are the highlight of this film and rare because Lawson doesn't clamour for attention for the amazing social changing work he's done. Fame is not Lawson's thing. He's too busy still working on Civil Rights in the US.

Investigative journalists are interviewed as are other associates & colleagues close to Dr. King. They include Wayne Chastain, Athan Theo Harris, Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles & Manning Marable. Note that they are not the usual interviewees viewers have heard from so many times. These voices add so much to the ongoing discussion of the socio-cultural events surrounding the US Civil Rights movement's leader's assassination~