" Citizen King " on PBS's American Experience
The story begins on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
August 1963, when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized
millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It
comes to a bloody end almost five years later, on a motel
balcony in Memphis, Tennessee.
In the years since those events unfolded, the man at their
center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic
figure, a minister whose oratory is etched into the minds of millions of Americans, a civil
rights activist whose words and image are more hotly contested, negotiated and sold than
almost anyone else's in American history.
Citizen King pushes past the myths that have obscured King's story to reclaim the history
of a people's leader. Using the personal recollections, diaries, letters, and eyewitness
accounts of friends, family, journalists, law enforcement officers and historians, this film
brings fresh insights to King's difficult journey, his charismatic -- if at times flawed --
leadership, and his truly remarkable impact.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/American Experience airs Monday nights at 9 pm on most PBS stations.
check your local listing here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/schedule_customize.html