1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.BZ 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ 3 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:28,960 He had been on the road for weeks. 4 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,760 Marches, meetings, threats. 5 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:36,920 The constant press of reporters and movement business. 6 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,414 The Nobel Peace Prize had pushed him into 7 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:44,080 a spotlight even brighter than the one he already occupied. 8 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,520 Yet on this quiet November evening in 1964, 9 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,120 something unexpected waited for him at home. 10 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:56,574 A small package. 11 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:57,760 No return address. 12 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,080 His wife Coretta was the one who discovered it sitting on the table. 13 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,600 Heavy enough to suggest something inside. 14 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:07,880 Light enough to feel wrong. 15 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,374 She opened it before he ever saw it. 16 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:12,894 A reel of tape. 17 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:13,880 And a letter. 18 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:18,560 The language was unlike anything he'd ever received. 19 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:21,734 Not from an enemy in the streets. 20 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,160 Not from the segregationists who followed him from city to city. 21 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:27,160 This was different. 22 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:28,654 Clinical. 23 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:29,320 Cold. 24 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,734 Written by someone who knew his private life. 25 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:34,974 His movements. 26 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:36,040 His vulnerabilities. 27 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,014 The author claimed to have recordings. 28 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,560 Intimate moments taken without his knowledge. 29 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:45,360 The letter insisted he was a fraud. 30 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,134 And then the final line. 31 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:49,000 A deadline. 32 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:51,120 34 days. 33 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,240 A demand that he take action. 34 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,240 A demand that he end his own life. 35 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:03,640 King stared at the page. 36 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:05,720 Who could have sent it? 37 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:08,294 He knew he was being watched. 38 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,654 The movement had whispered for months that phones 39 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,294 were tapped and hotel rooms wired. 40 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:14,854 But this? 41 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:16,360 This was something else. 42 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:18,840 This was personal. 43 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,214 This was a strike meant for his heart. 44 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:23,334 His home. 45 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:24,200 His family. 46 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,174 He folded the letter once. 47 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:28,214 Twice. 48 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:32,040 And in the silence of that room, he realized the truth. 49 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:35,840 Whoever had written it didn't simply want to expose him. 50 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:38,360 They wanted to break him. 51 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,680 Only later would the authorship become clear. 52 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,414 Not a fringe hate group. 53 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:46,934 Not a lone extremist. 54 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,960 But the most powerful law enforcement agency in the United States. 55 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:56,334 The FBI had reached into the private life 56 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,494 of America's most visible moral leader and urged 57 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,480 him towards self-destruction. 58 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,374 And the question that hangs over his legacy 59 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,374 and over American history itself begins here. 60 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:10,974 With a package on a kitchen table and 61 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:13,174 a letter meant to end Martin Luther King 62 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,414 Jr.'s life before a bullet ever could. 63 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,654 Noticing what was being done on the part 64 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:31,134 of his black brothers and sisters in Africa 65 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,500 gave him a new sense of dignity in the United States 66 00:03:34,566 --> 00:03:36,800 and a new sense of self-respect. 67 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:40,680 The Negro came to feel that he was somebody. 68 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,414 His religion revealed to him that God loves 69 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:52,014 all of his children and that all men are made in his image and that the 70 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:56,920 basic thing about a man is not his specificity but his fundamentum. 71 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:03,840 Not the texture of his hair or the color of his skin but his eternal dignity and worth. 72 00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,694 And so the Negro in America could now 73 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,654 cry out unconsciously with the eloquent poet, fleecy 74 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:15,760 locks and black complexion cannot forfeit nature's claim. 75 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:22,054 Skin may differ but affection dwells in black and white the same. 76 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:27,454 And were I so tall as to reach the pole or to grasp the ocean at 77 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:31,774 a span, I must be measured by my soul. 78 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:34,574 The mind is the standard of the man. 79 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:39,414 And with this new sense of dignity and this new sense of self-respect, a new 80 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,094 Negro came into being with a new determination 81 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:45,894 to suffer, to struggle, to sacrifice and even 82 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,614 to die if necessary in order to be free. 83 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,520 This reveals that we have come a long, long way. 84 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,014 To understand the danger Martin Luther King Jr. 85 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,494 was walking into, you have to understand the 86 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:04,800 America he was fighting to change. 87 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,934 The early 1960s were not simply a time of racial tension. 88 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:11,854 They were a time in which the country 89 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,920 was divided between two incompatible versions of itself. 90 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:22,840 On one side stood millions who believed equality was long overdue, 91 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:25,574 that segregation was an open 92 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:28,774 wound and that non-violent resistance could force 93 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:33,000 a nation built on democratic ideals to finally live up to them. 94 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,840 On the other side stood those who believed the old order. 95 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,534 White supremacy enforced by custom, law and violence 96 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,880 was not just tradition, but survival. 97 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,520 Across the South, segregation wasn't a social preference. 98 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,054 It was a system engineered over decades, reinforced 99 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:00,320 by police, business owners, school boards, judges and governors. 100 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:05,814 In states like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, racial 101 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,694 hierarchy was woven into the streets themselves, determining 102 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:14,960 where people could eat, sleep, work, vote or even drink water. 103 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:19,760 And when that order was threatened, the response was swift. 104 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:24,334 Churches were bombed, homes were burned, marchers were 105 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:26,040 beaten in broad daylight. 106 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:31,720 The message was simple, change would come only over someone's dead body. 107 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:37,374 Into this stepped King, a wordsmith, strategic, unshakably 108 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:39,894 committed to non-violent protest. 109 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:44,454 His approach didn't just challenge the system, it humiliated it. 110 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:46,214 We feel also that one of the great 111 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:48,414 glories of American democracy is that we have 112 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:51,280 the right to protest our rights. 113 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,294 We will do it in an orderly fashion. 114 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:56,454 This is a non-violent protest. 115 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:58,974 We are depending on moral and spiritual forces 116 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,534 using the method of passive resistance. 117 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:06,534 When marchers met police dogs with hymns, when 118 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,494 they met tear gas with locked arms, when 119 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,374 they faced down clubs without lifting a hand, 120 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:17,120 the whole world saw the reality southern officials tried to deny. 121 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,240 And as the cameras rolled, something even more dangerous happened. 122 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,054 Americans who had never joined a protest, who 123 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:32,480 had never spoken about race at all, began to feel sympathy and then outrage. 124 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:38,134 King's influence grew because his message made sense to ordinary people. 125 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,814 And for those who depended on segregation to 126 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:43,800 maintain power, that was unacceptable. 127 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:48,280 His rise meant their grip was slipping. 128 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,854 But King wasn't only challenging the south, his 129 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,094 vision threatened the north too. 130 00:07:54,160 --> 00:08:00,040 Banks, business owners, landlords, unions, political machines. 131 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,814 Anyone who profited from unequal housing, cheap black 132 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:06,614 labor, or the political suppression of black communities 133 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,760 watched King's growing influence with unease. 134 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,640 He was pointing at systems they preferred to keep invisible. 135 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,000 Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 was the beginning. 136 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,014 In the heart of the deep south, Montgomery's 137 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,694 traditional pattern of segregation touched all forms of the city's life. 138 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:27,694 The long frustration which this produced in its 139 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,814 Negro citizens erupted when a colored seamstress riding 140 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,080 in a bus refused to honor the traditions of segregated seating. 141 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,494 From this incident grew a protest movement headed 142 00:08:36,560 --> 00:08:40,640 by Dr. King, then an obscure pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery. 143 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:45,134 The protest took the form of a boycott of the city's buses. 144 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:50,320 For 381 days, the Negroes of Montgomery walked or rode in special carpools. 145 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,094 The half-filled and sometimes empty buses made 146 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:55,054 the effect of the boycott felt. 147 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:57,934 Animosities buried beneath years of social custom struck 148 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,920 dangerous sparks in the tense atmosphere of Montgomery. 149 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:04,974 But Dr. King, himself a victim of these 150 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,494 same animosities, continued to inspire his people with 151 00:09:07,560 --> 00:09:09,840 his own philosophy of non-violence. 152 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:17,534 I will not rest until we are able to make this kind of witness in this 153 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,774 city so that the power structure downtown will 154 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:25,574 have to say we can't stop this movement and the only way to deal with it 155 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:30,934 is to give these people what we owe them and what their God-given rights and 156 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,000 their constitutional rights demand. 157 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:41,880 By 1963, King's movement had become national. 158 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,974 Birmingham, the March on Washington, Selma, and then 159 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:49,200 the moment that changed everything. 160 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,654 The Civil Rights Act of 1964. 161 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,294 Five hours after the house passes the measure, 162 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:58,254 the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed 163 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:00,454 at the White House by President Johnson. 164 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,934 Before an audience of legislators and civil rights 165 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,174 leaders who had labored long and hard for 166 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,094 passage of the bill, President Johnson calls for 167 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:12,840 all Americans to back what he calls a turning point in history. 168 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,014 We must not approach the observance and enforcement 169 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,400 of this law in a vengeful spirit. 170 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:24,720 Its purpose is not to punish. 171 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,334 Its purpose is not to divide but to 172 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:33,840 end divisions, divisions which have lasted all too long. 173 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,480 Its purpose is national, not regional. 174 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:43,574 This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in 175 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:47,360 our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, 176 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:55,360 to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country. 177 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:58,614 There's warm applause for members of both parties 178 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:00,374 as the president sets to work. 179 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:01,534 It is work. 180 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:05,134 He uses nearly a hundred pens to affix his signature and date. 181 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,494 Souvenirs go to Republican leader Everett Dirksen and 182 00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:10,654 Democrat-equipped Hubert Humphrey. 183 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:12,694 The president seems to have mastered the art 184 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,080 of just touching each pen to the paper. 185 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,134 Integration leader Martin Luther King receives his pen, 186 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:22,174 a gift he said he would cherish. 187 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:25,654 The Department of Justice will enforce the law if necessary 188 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,734 and G-man chief J. Edgar Hoover is present. 189 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:30,654 It wasn't just the law. 190 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:33,094 It was a signal that the federal government, 191 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:37,600 after decades of looking away, was beginning to heed King's demands. 192 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:43,614 With every victory, his public profile soared. 193 00:11:43,680 --> 00:11:46,774 He was on the front pages of newspapers around the world. 194 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:49,480 He was Time Magazine's man of the year. 195 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:54,334 He was traveling constantly, organizing marches, negotiating with 196 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:57,734 presidents, and pushing the cause beyond polite appeals 197 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:00,334 and into the realm of moral crisis. 198 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:02,814 I have felt all along that we are 199 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:06,454 working and protesting under the aegis of the 200 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:11,814 constitution and I feel that somewhere this conviction 201 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:14,414 will be found unconstitutional. 202 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,174 We will continue to protest in the same 203 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:21,720 spirit of love and non-violence and passive resistance. 204 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,414 I might say that there is no bitterness 205 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:30,254 on my part and certainly no bitterness on the part of the more than 40,000 206 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:32,600 Negro citizens of Montgomery. 207 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:35,534 We feel that we are right and that 208 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:39,054 we have a legitimate complaint and also we 209 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:41,334 feel that one of the great glories of 210 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,240 America is the right to protest for rights. 211 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,334 Using peaceful methods, the Negroes of Montgomery won 212 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:50,454 their battle and with it, they won the 213 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:53,254 admiration and support of millions of their countrymen, 214 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:54,440 black and white alike. 215 00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,374 But with each step forward, the list of 216 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,120 people who wanted him stopped grew longer. 217 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:05,720 Some enemies were obvious. 218 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,894 The Ku Klux Klan saw him as an existential threat. 219 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:14,454 Hardline segregationists called him a communist, a destabilizer, 220 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,120 a man who wanted to ruin America. 221 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,240 Local police tracked him obsessively. 222 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,774 Governors like George Wallace publicly condemned him, insisting 223 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:27,254 that King's movement was an attack on states' 224 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,374 rights and Southern identity. 225 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,014 I'm very interested in talking about something that 226 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:35,534 87 percent of American people oppose and most 227 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,414 governors say they oppose and the president says 228 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:40,534 he opposes and it's hard for me to 229 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,014 understand if everybody's against it, why do we have it? 230 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:50,640 But some enemies were quieter, more professional, and far more dangerous. 231 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,574 Within the federal government, the rise of the 232 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:58,000 civil rights movement collided with Cold War paranoia. 233 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:03,014 To J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI's director, everything in American 234 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,920 life was a battlefield between communism and democracy. 235 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:11,814 Movements, protests, and demands for systemic change were 236 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,814 viewed not as expressions of citizenship but as 237 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:17,920 potential threats, even infiltrations. 238 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,734 Hoover believed that the civil rights movement was 239 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:27,414 being manipulated by communist agents seeking to destabilize 240 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:28,920 the country from within. 241 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,814 He convinced himself that Martin Luther King Jr., 242 00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,894 a Baptist minister who preached non-violence, was 243 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:40,774 the centerpiece of that plot and took it 244 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:45,720 upon himself to stop it by whatever means necessary. 245 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:57,120 April 4th, 1968, early evening in Memphis. 246 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:01,854 The Lorraine Motel sits quietly on Mulberry Street, 247 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:04,960 its courtyard calm, almost ordinary. 248 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:07,774 Martin Luther King Jr. is in the city 249 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:11,014 to support striking sanitation workers who were protesting 250 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,934 the lack of safety standards and their low pay. 251 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,360 Oh, there's no doubt about the fact that violence is in the air. 252 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:19,974 There's no doubt about the fact that there's 253 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:25,494 more talk of violence these days and in years gone by. 254 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:28,094 There are many reasons for this. 255 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:32,054 When a nation runs wild violently in the 256 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,814 world, it creates a climate for violence within 257 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:39,214 its own confines and one must never overlook 258 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:45,374 the fact that our nation is obsessed with the guns of war in Vietnam and it 259 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,014 has created a climate of violence, a climate 260 00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:52,694 of confusion, a climate of division, and even a climate of hatred. 261 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:57,454 And I think we have to recognize this as we move on in the days ahead. 262 00:15:57,520 --> 00:15:59,534 Now, this does not mean that it is 263 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,294 not possible to have a non-violent demonstration. 264 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:06,894 I think we have to see that it's more difficult at this time. 265 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,174 Consequently, we have to take greater precautions and 266 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,214 we have to train people in a very 267 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:16,374 disciplined manner over a longer period, maybe, to 268 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:20,934 control elements that can become uncontrollable because of 269 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:22,320 the nature of the situation. 270 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:27,774 And that night, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech. 271 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:29,654 We've got some dip again to talk about 272 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,774 the threats that what would happen to me 273 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,600 from some of our sick white brothers. 274 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:41,240 Well, I don't know what will happen now, 275 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:43,640 but it really doesn't matter with me now. 276 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:51,120 Because I've been to the mountaintop and I've seen the promised land. 277 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:54,854 I may not get there with you, 278 00:16:54,920 --> 00:17:01,734 but I want you to know tonight's promised land. 279 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:03,694 He is tired. 280 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:08,574 He has been carrying the weight of marches, threats, and constant travel. 281 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:12,760 But on this evening, for a moment, the tension seems to lift. 282 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,374 King jokes with his friends. 283 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,694 He teases Jesse Jackson about an untucked shirt. 284 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:21,374 He asks musician Ben Branch to play his 285 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:26,014 favorite hymn that night, Precious Lord, Take My Hand. 286 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:44,440 Just after 6 p.m., King steps out onto the balcony of room 306. 287 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,080 Below him, the movement's leaders gather to head to dinner. 288 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:52,960 He leans over the railing, calling down to them. 289 00:17:55,400 --> 00:18:01,160 Then at 6.01 p.m., a single rifle shot cracks through the warm air. 290 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:06,814 King falls backward instantly, struck in the jaw and neck. 291 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:09,374 His friends rush to him, shouting his name, 292 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:12,214 trying to stop the bleeding, pointing frantically toward 293 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,014 the boarding house across the street where someone, 294 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:17,680 something, moved just seconds before. 295 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,294 Within an hour, at St. Joseph's Hospital, Martin 296 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:26,160 Luther King Jr. is pronounced dead. 297 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,214 And I said, Dr. King, Ben Branch. 298 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:34,654 He said, yes, Ben. 299 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:36,854 He said, I want you to sing that song for me tonight. 300 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:38,774 I want you to do Precious Lord. 301 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:40,414 I want you to do it real pretty for me. 302 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:42,254 So Ben said, okay, Dr. King. 303 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:43,934 And so I said, Dr., you ready to go? 304 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,094 He said, yes, just to say, let's get ready to go right now. 305 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:49,200 I said, Dr. King. 306 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:51,134 That was it. 307 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,494 I said, Dr. King, just as he's screaming up, I said, Dr. King. 308 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:56,720 And the bullet exploded in his face. 309 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:01,254 And evidently it came from this direction because 310 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:07,334 he was standing at an acute angle and the bullet knocked him up off of his 311 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,094 feet in that direction against that ledger over there. 312 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:13,774 And it knocked him off of his feet. 313 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,294 And we turned around immediately because we didn't 314 00:19:16,360 --> 00:19:18,040 know how many bullets were coming. 315 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:20,614 And we turned around looking. 316 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:24,254 And we were looking to see where it had come from because you couldn't tell. 317 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:29,094 You couldn't tell there was a shot until it hit his face. 318 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:33,014 It sounded like a stick of dandemite or a large firecracker. 319 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,014 And when we turned, all we could see was police coming. 320 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,134 Police were coming from the direction of the shot. 321 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:41,640 They had been lined up along the streets. 322 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,480 News spreads across the country like a shockwave. 323 00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,240 Streets fill with grief and anger. 324 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:52,960 Millions mourn. 325 00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:06,360 Mrs. King, in this conference, will issue a statement. 326 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,654 My husband often told the children that if 327 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:17,920 a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live. 328 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:26,400 He said also that it's not how long you live, but how well you live. 329 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:32,320 He knew that at any moment his physical life could be cut short. 330 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:38,440 And we face this possibility squarely and honestly. 331 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:44,480 My husband faced the possibility of death without bitterness or hatred. 332 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,454 He knew that this was a sick society, 333 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:55,134 totally infested with racism and violence, that questioned 334 00:20:55,200 --> 00:21:00,054 his integrity, maligned his motives, and distorted his 335 00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:03,480 views, which would ultimately lead to his death. 336 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,774 And he struggled with every ounce of his 337 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,480 energy to save that society from itself. 338 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:18,000 It was a moment of pain and trauma, 339 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:20,574 and yet it was an inevitable moment. 340 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,254 In some sense, we had prepared for such 341 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:26,214 a moment because we were clear that there 342 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,814 had to be some suffering, that there had 343 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:32,814 to be some crucifixion in order to get 344 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,414 a resurrection in American society, given the fact 345 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,134 that our commitment was to stop the racial 346 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,694 polarization, to stop the economic exploitation, and we 347 00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:49,440 were aware of the critical nature of the forces that were against us. 348 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:56,040 And almost immediately, a single urgent question rises above the chaos. 349 00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:58,800 Who killed him? 350 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:01,854 The official answer comes quickly. 351 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:06,360 James Earl Ray, a petty criminal, arrested two months later. 352 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:08,280 Case closed. 353 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:17,574 But to many who knew King, this never felt like the full story, not with the 354 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,120 threats he'd been receiving, not with the enemies he'd made. 355 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:23,854 And not with the government agency that had 356 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:27,014 been watching him, tracking him, and trying to 357 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,120 break him for years before a bullet did. 358 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:36,080 Yes, I have been threatened many, many times. 359 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:43,894 There was a time that we received as many as 30 and 40 threatening calls a day. 360 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:48,120 And of course, I received numerous threatening letters. 361 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,094 My secretary has come to the point now 362 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,974 that she doesn't show me most of these 363 00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:56,934 letters, but occasionally I come across them. 364 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,174 Within the last few days, I remember receiving a threatening letter. 365 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:06,494 And they say such things as this, you 366 00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:09,654 are causing too much trouble in this town, 367 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:14,480 and if you aren't out within 10 days, you and your family will be killed. 368 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,600 Now in Montgomery, our home was bombed twice. 369 00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:23,134 And I guess these were the most severe 370 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,974 instances of violence that we confronted. 371 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:30,054 But even today, we still confront threats through 372 00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:33,000 telephone calls and through the mail. 373 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,294 Because the assassination didn't begin at 6.01 374 00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:43,720 p.m. It began with the people who wanted Martin Luther King Jr. silenced. 375 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:51,680 So what really happened? 376 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:54,494 How was the civil rights leader known for 377 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,080 nonviolence cut down on a balcony so violently? 378 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,414 Well, long before the world heard the gunfire 379 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,574 in Memphis, another kind of assault had already begun. 380 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:10,694 Quiet, methodical, engineered with the most powerful investigative 381 00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:12,800 body in the United States. 382 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:19,320 The Federal Bureau of Investigation, better known as the FBI. 383 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,654 It started in the late 1950s, when King 384 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:27,840 first emerged as a national figure during the Montgomery bus boycott. 385 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:34,040 J. Edgar Hoover, already in his third decade as FBI director, was suspicious. 386 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:38,574 To him, mass movements were not expressions of democracy. 387 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,280 They were disruptions, signs of potential subversion. 388 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,534 He zeroed in on Stanley Levison, one of 389 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:50,960 King's closest advisors who had past ties to the Communist Party. 390 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,334 For Hoover, that was enough. 391 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,614 He had convinced himself that King was either 392 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:01,414 being manipulated, influenced, or knowingly working with Communists. 393 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:05,374 This belief, unsupported by evidence, became the justification 394 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:07,440 for years of surveillance. 395 00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:14,720 Inside the Bureau, William Sullivan became the architect of the operation. 396 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,694 But when his intelligence report finally arrived, five 397 00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:23,934 days before King's historic march on Washington, it concluded the opposite. 398 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:25,680 No Communist control. 399 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:27,814 No infiltration. 400 00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:29,040 No plot. 401 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,760 But for J. Edgar Hoover, the truth wasn't acceptable. 402 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:36,640 He rejected Sullivan's findings outright. 403 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,214 He wanted King tied to Communists, not because 404 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,134 the evidence pointed there, but because it gave 405 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,480 him the legal foundation to spy. 406 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,840 So just days later, Sullivan produced a second report, 407 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,320 one that contradicted his own conclusion. 408 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,774 This new memo called King the most dangerous 409 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:07,720 Negro in America, a phrase Hoover later underlined himself. 410 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:13,294 The report insisted that King's advisors, especially Stanley 411 00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:16,560 Levison, were secret Communist assets. 412 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,374 It didn't matter that the FBI's own investigation debunked this. 413 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:26,400 In the Bureau's internal logic, the accusation was the justification. 414 00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,814 And with that single document, the door opened 415 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,894 to a campaign of surveillance unlike anything directed 416 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,534 at an American citizen who hadn't committed a crime. 417 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:41,680 The Bureau now had what it a pretext. 418 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,960 COINTELPRO, the counterintelligence program, began the framework. 419 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,894 Originally created to monitor Communists during the Cold 420 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,894 War, it expanded to what the FBI called 421 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,240 black nationalist or subversive groups. 422 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,494 Under Hoover, the definition of threat grew so 423 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:07,200 expensive that anyone advocating for racial justice could be targeted. 424 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,000 And King became the biggest target of all. 425 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:16,840 By 1963, the monitoring had escalated dramatically. 426 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,520 Hoover authorized round-the-clock monitoring. 427 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:26,854 Hotel wiretaps, room bugs, informants planted inside the SCLC. 428 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,014 Every phone call was recorded. 429 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:30,934 Every trip was tracked. 430 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,494 Every private moment was potentially captured. 431 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,694 The FBI didn't simply want to watch King. 432 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,614 They wanted to discredit him, destroy his reputation, 433 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,574 neutralize his influence. 434 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:46,214 This wasn't surveillance for security. 435 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,640 It was surveillance for sabotage. 436 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,694 As months passed, the Bureau collected audio it 437 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,214 claimed revealed moral failings, the kind of material 438 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,200 they believed could ruin him. 439 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,454 Internal summaries described King as engaging in sexual 440 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:12,334 orgies involving both male and female participants, inebriation, 441 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,280 and what they vaguely labeled depravity. 442 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,774 They alleged encounters with white prostitutes, claiming King 443 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,840 would drink heavily, become vulgar, even aggressive. 444 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,800 All of this written by men who wanted him destroyed. 445 00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:32,494 All of this recorded without any way for King to defend himself. 446 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,134 And all of it deliberately framed in sensational 447 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,760 language meant not to report but to smear. 448 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:44,574 One internal memo, declassified decades later, described King's 449 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:48,654 private behavior as a series of sordid affairs, 450 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,840 adding that the surveillance tapes would destroy his image if released. 451 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,854 Another summarized the night in Washington by saying 452 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,654 King was running a call service, 453 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:04,880 a claim no historian believes but which the FBI used as ammunition. 454 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:10,760 To the Bureau, these allegations were a weapon, not a discovery. 455 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,414 Sullivan's operations shifted from gathering intelligence to constructing 456 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:18,520 a case for character assassination. 457 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,774 Their goal wasn't to expose communism anymore. 458 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:25,734 It was to fracture King's leadership, his marriage, 459 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,760 his movement, and his public credibility. 460 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,854 By late 1964, the FBI had gathered everything 461 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,960 it believed could damage Martin Luther King Jr. 462 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,654 Hours of tapes, pages of transcripts, and a 463 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,094 catalog of unverified allegations meant to portray him 464 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,160 as immoral and unworthy. 465 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:50,814 But surveillance alone wasn't enough for J. Edgar Hoover. 466 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:52,840 He wanted King neutralized. 467 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,160 He wanted him broken. 468 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,040 So the Bureau escalated. 469 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,974 The anonymous package that arrived at King's home looked harmless enough. 470 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,894 No return address, no fingerprints to trace, and 471 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,014 it wasn't Martin who opened it. 472 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:14,960 It was his wife, Coretta Scott King. 473 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,600 She found the parcel sitting quietly among the day's mail. 474 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,080 Inside was a reel of tape and a typed letter. 475 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:27,494 When Martin read the letter later that evening, 476 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,840 its message landed like a blade. 477 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:35,214 Accusations, threats, intimate details only a hidden microphone 478 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:36,200 could capture. 479 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,160 And then the final line. 480 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:43,920 34 days to take your own life. 481 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,934 It wasn't aimed at his politics. 482 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,400 It was aimed at his marriage, his family, his spirit. 483 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,720 But this letter was just the centerpiece of a broader strategy. 484 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,334 The FBI began circulating portions of their recordings 485 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,654 to selected journalists in Washington, hoping the press 486 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:04,480 would destroy King for them. 487 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,654 Most refused. 488 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,374 They recognized what they were being handed was not a scoop. 489 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:12,480 It was an attack. 490 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,814 Still, Hoover was convinced the public revelation of 491 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,814 King's private life would shatter the movement. 492 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,160 He told aides that King was a notorious liar. 493 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,840 He publicly called him the most dangerous Negro in America. 494 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,454 And behind closed doors, his team drafted memos 495 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:35,734 that openly strategized how to expose, neutralize, and 496 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,960 discredit King before his influence grew even further. 497 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:43,680 But the blow didn't land the way Hoover expected. 498 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:46,614 King was shaken, yes. 499 00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:47,680 He was human. 500 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,534 The package embarrassed him deeply. 501 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:54,440 It caused tension in his marriage, friction within his circle. 502 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:57,280 Sleepless nights. 503 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,800 He had always known he was being watched. 504 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,440 Now he knew just how intimately. 505 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:12,760 Yet he refused to retreat. 506 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,640 Instead, he pushed further into the struggle. 507 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:21,774 He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. 508 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:23,360 He marched in Selma. 509 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,334 He campaigned for voting rights. 510 00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:31,374 He began speaking out against poverty, inequality, and the Vietnam War. 511 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,200 Subjects Hoover found even more threatening. 512 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:39,400 The prophet must remind America of the urgency of now. 513 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,734 The oft-repeated cliches, the time is not 514 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:48,374 right, Negroes are not culturally ready, are a 515 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,640 stench in the nostrils of God. 516 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,760 The time is always right to do what is right. 517 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:59,440 Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. 518 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,974 Now is the time to transform the bleak 519 00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:06,814 and desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man 520 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,760 into a glowing daybreak of freedom and justice. 521 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:16,680 Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. 522 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:22,214 Now is the time to change the pending national elegy 523 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:26,054 into a creative psalm of brotherly love. 524 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,214 I do plan to stir up trouble in 525 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,320 some of the big cities in our country this summer, 526 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:35,774 but my stirring up trouble will 527 00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:42,000 be righteous trouble to bring about non-violent solutions. 528 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,254 There is no doubt about the despair in 529 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,534 the Negro community, and I don't think we 530 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,054 deal with that despair by doing nothing. 531 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,254 We've got to have outlets through which people 532 00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,214 can channelize their legitimate discontent. 533 00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,574 King once said, if a man has not 534 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:04,280 discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. 535 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:08,614 Pleasure now to present the moral leader of 536 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:12,334 our nation, one who has conducted a massive 537 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,174 moral campaign in the southern area of the 538 00:34:16,240 --> 00:34:20,294 nation against the citadel of racism, Dr. Martin 539 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:25,454 Luther King Jr. Thank you, Mr. Randolph. 540 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:29,574 I would simply like to say that I think this has been one of the great 541 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:36,534 days of America, and I think this march will go down as one of the greatest, 542 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,374 if not the greatest, demonstrations for freedom and 543 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:44,680 human dignity ever held in the United States. 544 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,680 The FBI tried to take his life with shame. 545 00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,774 He responded by expanding the scope of his 546 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:56,840 mission, and with every step forward, Hoover's anger deepened. 547 00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:01,640 Inside FBI headquarters, the tone hardened. 548 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:06,640 One memo from Sullivan stated bluntly, we must mark him now. 549 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:12,120 Another declared, the time is now to take him off his pedestal. 550 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,400 These weren't warnings, they were intentions. 551 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,774 The Bureau attempted to sow division within the SCLC by leaking rumors. 552 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,414 They encouraged rival leaders to distrust King. 553 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,774 They sent threatening letters to other civil rights 554 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,814 leaders, implying King was betraying them. 555 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:34,014 They even attempted to sabotage his marriage, sending 556 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,734 Coretta Scott King anonymous notes hinting at affairs, 557 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,000 hoping the emotional fallout would weaken him at home. 558 00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,494 By 1967, the FBI had accumulated hundreds of 559 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:49,734 hours of recordings, yet none of it damaged King publicly. 560 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,134 The movement continued to grow. 561 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:53,734 His influence widened. 562 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,214 His voice carried further, and to Hoover, this 563 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,960 made King more dangerous than ever. 564 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,134 It's a fact now, and everybody knows it, 565 00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,214 that there are growing racial problems in Britain 566 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:08,694 as a result of the large number of 567 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,974 colored persons from the West Indies, from Pakistan 568 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:15,534 and India, who are coming into the country. 569 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,134 And it is my feeling that if Great 570 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:23,494 Britain is not eternally vigilant, if England does 571 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:28,814 not in a real sense go all out to deal with this problem now, it can 572 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,654 mushroom and become as serious as the problem we face in some other nations. 573 00:36:32,720 --> 00:36:35,054 Robert Kennedy, when he was attorney general, said 574 00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,094 that he could imagine the possibility of a 575 00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,494 Negro president in the United States within perhaps 40 years. 576 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,360 Do you think this is at all realistic? 577 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:47,454 Well, let me say first that I think it is necessary to make it clear that 578 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:51,334 there are Negroes who are presently qualified to 579 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,534 be president of the United States. 580 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:55,854 There are many who are qualified in terms 581 00:36:55,920 --> 00:37:00,494 of integrity, in terms of vision, in terms of leadership ability. 582 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,694 But we do know that there are certain 583 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,494 problems and prejudices and mores in our society 584 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:08,494 which make it difficult now. 585 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:12,240 However, I am very optimistic about the future. 586 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:15,454 Frankly, I have seen certain changes in the 587 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:18,894 United States over the last two years that surprise me. 588 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,614 I've seen levels of compliance with the Civil 589 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:26,414 Rights Bill and changes that have been most surprising. 590 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:30,574 So on the basis of this, I think we may be able to get a Negro 591 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:32,614 president in less than 40 years. 592 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:37,280 I would think that this could come in 25 years or less. 593 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,640 King's path took a new radical turn. 594 00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:45,254 He launched the Poor People's Campaign, his boldest 595 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:49,800 challenge yet aimed at dismantling economic injustice at its roots. 596 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,774 He planned a mass demonstration in Washington, a 597 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:58,400 protest that threatened to disrupt the nation's capital for weeks. 598 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:03,000 To King, this was the next step in America's moral evolution. 599 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,480 To the FBI, it was a threat to national stability. 600 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:16,894 I have the pleasure to present to you Dr. Martin Luther King, JR. 601 00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:38,400 I am happy to join with you today 602 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,640 in what will go down in history 603 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:51,174 as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. 604 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,320 Five score years ago, 605 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:09,360 a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, 606 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,320 signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 607 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:18,760 This momentous decree came 608 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,294 as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves 609 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:30,000 who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. 610 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:34,453 It came as a joyous daybreak 611 00:39:36,019 --> 00:39:39,900 to end the long night of their captivity. 612 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,720 But 100 years later, 613 00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:50,840 the Negro still is not free. 614 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:54,694 There are those who are asking the devotees 615 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:59,040 of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? 616 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,654 We can never be satisfied as long as 617 00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:07,640 the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. 618 00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:11,614 We can never be satisfied as long as 619 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,254 our children are stripped of their selfhood and 620 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:18,694 robbed of their dignity by signs stating for rights only. 621 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:26,854 No, no we are not satisfied and we 622 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,534 will not be satisfied until justice rolls down 623 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:33,934 like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. 624 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,314 I have a dream that one day on the 625 00:40:44,380 --> 00:40:48,574 red hills of Georgia, sons of former 626 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,520 slaves and the sons of former slave owners, 627 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:56,534 will they be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. 628 00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:01,854 I have a dream that one day, even 629 00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:08,720 the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, 630 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:16,054 sweltering with the heat of oppression, be transformed into an oasis of 631 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:17,374 freedom and justice. 632 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:18,600 I have a dream... 633 00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:23,920 That my four little children 634 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,654 will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the 635 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:31,774 color of their skin but by the content of their character. 636 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:33,454 I have a dream today. 637 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:41,280 And then came Memphis. 638 00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:45,294 King traveled to support the sanitation strike, another 639 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:49,640 battle for dignity that the Bureau dismissed as communist agitation. 640 00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:53,480 His presence attracted national attention once more. 641 00:41:54,240 --> 00:41:58,200 His speeches reignited the fire of hope in thousands of workers. 642 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,934 The psychological campaign had failed to break him. 643 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:05,480 The smears had failed to silence him. 644 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:09,854 King had survived everything Hoover threw at him, 645 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,734 but he could not escape the climate that 646 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,334 campaign created, a climate that televised him as 647 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,374 a threat, that dehumanized him in law enforcement 648 00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:24,054 circles, that emboldened extremists, that convinced parts of 649 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,854 the government that Martin Luther King Jr. was 650 00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:29,120 a man who needed to be stopped. 651 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,134 And so, as King walked onto the balcony 652 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:36,800 of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, 653 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:42,814 he was not only a leader at the height of his moral power, he was a 654 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,654 target standing in the crosshairs of multiple forces, 655 00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:49,480 public, private, and governmental. 656 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,654 A man who had survived years of blackmail, 657 00:42:53,720 --> 00:42:56,520 psychological warfare, and surveillance, 658 00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:03,280 but who would not survive the bullet waiting on the other side of the street. 659 00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,680 Within hours of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, 660 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,934 investigators focused on a rooming house across the 661 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,774 street from the Lorraine Motel with a bathroom window facing King's balcony. 662 00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:26,360 A bundle of belongings were found nearby. 663 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:31,974 Inside, a rifle, binoculars, a radio, and a 664 00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:34,480 map marked with King's route through the city. 665 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:39,480 The items led police to a name, James Earl Ray. 666 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,694 Ray was not a operator, not a trained 667 00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:47,214 sniper, not a man with a known ideology. 668 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:50,174 He was a career criminal, a prison escapee 669 00:43:50,240 --> 00:43:52,014 who had broken out of the Missouri State 670 00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:56,254 Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a bread truck. 671 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,854 He'd spent the next year drifting across North 672 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,934 America under aliases, doing odd jobs, 673 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:05,360 taking survival-level work, and avoiding attention. 674 00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:10,640 He was intelligent enough to stay on the move, but not sophisticated. 675 00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:13,494 Resourceful, but not disciplined. 676 00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,040 A man who lived life on the margins. 677 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:21,640 Yet within days, the FBI declared him the sole assassin. 678 00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:25,040 The evidence was presented quickly. 679 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,094 He had purchased a rifle identical to the murder weapon. 680 00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:31,094 Fingerprints linked him to the bundle of items 681 00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,294 found near the scene, and multiple witnesses recalled 682 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,054 seeing a man resembling Ray fleeing the boarding 683 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,080 house moments after the shot. 684 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,374 Two months later, he was arrested at Heathrow 685 00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:45,374 Airport with a passport under the name Ramon 686 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:49,614 Sneed, an alias stolen from a Canadian immigrant 687 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:51,840 who had never left North America. 688 00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:56,174 News of Ray's arrest came first from the 689 00:44:56,240 --> 00:44:58,454 FBI chief Edgar Hoover in Washington. 690 00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,734 He said that Ray was carrying two Canadian 691 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:05,280 passports and a fully loaded pistol when he landed at London from Lisbon. 692 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,214 Ray was brought straight here from London Airport, 693 00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:10,574 and immediately on arrival he was charged with 694 00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:14,600 having a forged passport and possessing firearm without a certificate. 695 00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,174 He'll appear at Bow Street Magistrate's Court on 696 00:45:17,240 --> 00:45:19,094 these charges on Monday morning. 697 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,174 He's charged in the name of Raymond George 698 00:45:22,240 --> 00:45:24,440 Sneed, which is the name in which he was traveling. 699 00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:29,774 I'm very pleased that Mr. Ray has been apprehended. 700 00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:32,094 Can you tell us the purpose of your visit here, sir? 701 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,934 Well, the principal purpose is to be on 702 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:38,454 the scene and try to expedite extradition 703 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:40,894 of Mr. Ray back to the United States. 704 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:42,774 Will you hope for voluntary extradition, or will 705 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:44,200 you try to get an extradition order? 706 00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:47,080 Well, the easy way is always the best way. 707 00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:49,054 Do you think you'll get the easy way? 708 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,640 Well, it remains to be seen. 709 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,894 Facing overwhelming pressure and the threat of the 710 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:58,774 death penalty, Ray pleaded guilty in March 1969, 711 00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:01,920 and he was sentenced to 99 years in prison. 712 00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:06,454 He never stood trial, he never faced cross-examination, 713 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,960 and the public never saw the evidence tested in court. 714 00:46:10,960 --> 00:46:15,320 But only three days after the sentence, he recanted. 715 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:22,494 For the rest of his life, James Earl Ray insisted he was a patsy, a fall guy. 716 00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:24,574 He claimed he had been manipulated by a 717 00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:27,934 mysterious figure he called Raul, a man who 718 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:30,574 allegedly directed him around the South in the 719 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:32,440 months leading up to the assassination. 720 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:37,494 Ray said he didn't fire the shot, that he wasn't even in the bathroom at the 721 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:41,120 time, that he had been set up to take the blame. 722 00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:45,534 To many, Ray's claims were the desperate attempts 723 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:48,134 of a guilty man seeking escape. 724 00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:51,214 But to others, civil rights leaders, lawyers, and 725 00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:54,694 eventually members of King's own family, the official 726 00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:59,240 story felt too simple, too quick, too convenient. 727 00:47:00,240 --> 00:47:03,534 A petty criminal with no history of racial 728 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:07,414 hatred, no known political motive, no skill as 729 00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,574 a marksman, yet he somehow executed one of 730 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:14,160 the most consequential assassinations in American history? 731 00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:17,934 That question, whether Ray acted alone or was 732 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,654 part of something larger, became the fault line 733 00:47:20,720 --> 00:47:23,000 on which decades of doubt would rest. 734 00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,014 But then came 1999. 735 00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,694 A full generation after the assassination, the King 736 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:40,614 family supported a civil lawsuit brought against a 737 00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:44,214 Memphis businessman, Lloyd Jowers, who claimed he had 738 00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:47,214 participated in a broader conspiracy to kill King 739 00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:52,120 involving local figures, organized crime, and government agencies. 740 00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:56,694 After weeks of testimony, under the civil standard 741 00:47:56,760 --> 00:48:01,720 of more likely than not, the jury returned a remarkable verdict. 742 00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,494 They found that Martin Luther King Jr. was 743 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,574 assassinated as the result of a conspiracy and 744 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:11,800 that James Earl Ray did not act alone. 745 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:16,614 They also found that unknown government agencies were involved. 746 00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:19,574 Coretta Scott King called the verdict a validation 747 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,240 of what we have believed all along. 748 00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:27,760 But it's important to understand what this verdict does and does not mean. 749 00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:32,174 It does mean a legally recognized jury believed 750 00:48:32,240 --> 00:48:36,880 Ray was not the sole assassin and that the official narrative is incomplete. 751 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:43,334 However, it does not overturn his conviction, identify 752 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:48,840 specific government officials, or prove criminal guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 753 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:53,094 Still, it remains the only courtroom decision in 754 00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,854 American history to publicly examine the assassination, and 755 00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:00,614 it concluded unequivocally that James Earl Ray was 756 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,747 not the lone killer the world had been told he was, 757 00:49:04,313 --> 00:49:06,680 and may not have been the killer at all. 758 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:14,814 This is the fracture in the story, the 759 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:18,520 opening through which countless doubts, questions, and theories flood. 760 00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:23,094 And it's the reason the assassination of Martin 761 00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:26,400 Luther King Jr. refuses to stay closed. 762 00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:40,240 More than half a century has passed since the gunshot in Memphis. 763 00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:43,654 In that time, thousands of pages of FBI 764 00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:45,934 files on Martin Luther King Jr. have been 765 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:51,374 released, including memos, surveillance summaries, transcripts of wiretaps, 766 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,840 internal debates, and orders from Hoover himself. 767 00:49:57,040 --> 00:50:01,254 Together, they expose a truth the government once denied. 768 00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:06,520 But even with all that disclosure, one part of the story is still sealed. 769 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,854 The surveillance tapes, the recordings Hoover claimed would 770 00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:15,240 destroy King, remain locked away at the National Archives. 771 00:50:16,720 --> 00:50:19,334 But by court order, they are scheduled to 772 00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:21,480 be released in the very near future. 773 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:24,894 We don't know what's on them. 774 00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:26,974 We don't know whether they contain proof of 775 00:50:27,040 --> 00:50:29,854 the allegations, or proof of how far the 776 00:50:29,920 --> 00:50:33,240 FBI was willing to go to fabricate a narrative. 777 00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,640 And that uncertainty is where the questions grow. 778 00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:41,534 What will those tapes reveal? 779 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,014 Will they confirm a man with human flaws? 780 00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:48,574 Will they expose the depths of a government smear campaign? 781 00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:53,360 Or will they show something the public has never been prepared to confront? 782 00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:00,054 The truth is, the United States has a history of secrets. 783 00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:04,920 And some of those secrets have shaped entire generations of distrust. 784 00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:09,134 The assassination of John F. 785 00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:12,534 Kennedy, still shadowed by decades of classified documents 786 00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:14,774 and unanswered questions. 787 00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:18,614 The CIA's involvement in MKUltra, where citizens were 788 00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:21,640 used in mind-controlled experiments without consent. 789 00:51:22,240 --> 00:51:24,934 Covert operations in foreign nations. 790 00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:30,934 Iran in 1953, or Chile in 1973, where the U.S. played a role in toppling 791 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:32,760 governments behind the scenes. 792 00:51:34,720 --> 00:51:38,974 More recently, the sealed files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, 793 00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:42,560 and the powerful individuals whose name remain redacted. 794 00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:50,974 Scandals, leaks, classified pages, redacted reports. 795 00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:54,254 Each one reinforcing a familiar pattern. 796 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:59,120 When institutions have something to lose, information disappears. 797 00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:02,894 And so, the story of Martin Luther King 798 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:06,134 Jr.'s death does not exist in isolation. 799 00:52:06,200 --> 00:52:08,934 It lives inside a wider American history. 800 00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:13,854 A history where official accounts are not always the complete accounts. 801 00:52:13,920 --> 00:52:16,534 And where public trust erodes every time the 802 00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,560 government chooses secrecy over transparency. 803 00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:23,920 But one fact stands above all the theories. 804 00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:28,894 Martin Luther King Jr. was seen as a threat by those in power. 805 00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:32,014 A man whose words could move nations. 806 00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,334 Whose presence could shift policy. 807 00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:39,334 And whose moral force challenged the deepest injustices in America.