King (2011) s01e03 Episode Script
Amanda Jacobs
Cory, I been thinking about taking one of them positions they've been offering me.
Could you? I don't know why I couldn't take off a couple of years, anyway.
Do you think you could leave the movement for that long? Oh, sure.
I mean, there's Andy.
He's coming along fine.
And Ralph, of course.
You know what I was really thinking about? You know, I've never been home when our last three babies were born.
Unless I do something, I'm gonna miss their childhood.
I'm gonna miss it forever.
Put that thing out of my face! Put it on Bernie, the birthday girl.
Now, go on, you're gonna break that camera.
That cost too much money.
It's her party.
Go on.
Lord have mercy.
No! But Martin never was able to accept a position as pastor.
There was Watts and there was Vietnam.
We want to welcome you.
Chicago is a big town.
It likes to welcome big people, and you're one of the biggest.
We welcome Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize winner, who fights for the betterment of America.
All right-thinking people share his views.
Now, we have a whole schedule for you a march through the Loop to the lakefront, an appearance on The Today Show Dr.
King didn't come here just to make appearances this time.
He came here to talk about jobs and housing and schools.
The schools and housing in Chicago is the best for blacks in any city in the United States.
- How much you want for this? - Ninety dollars a month.
- That's a lot, isn't it? - Make up your mind.
You won't find anything else at any better rates.
I'll take it.
And this place pays ninety dollars a month unfurnished.
Mommy, it smells here! Yoki, we're gonna live here for a while.
Most of our people live just this way.
You didn't tell me Martin Luther King was in the building.
We're gonna live here.
I'll talk to the landlord.
He'll get some paint, new furniture fix it up a little.
No.
We'll take it just as it is.
Just as it is.
This way, gentlemen.
Come right over here.
You'll want to get a picture of that, please.
There, take a picture of that right over there.
And I'm sure you'll want to have a picture of this right here.
Get a picture right over here by this window.
This is our new home.
It's nice of you to visit me.
I don't usually get such a distinguished visitor.
I'm here to ask you to stop telling our people to burn down their own neighborhoods.
That's the last thing I'd do.
They're finding their manhood out there.
I've watched you for a long time.
What else do you have to offer besides hate? Hate is something to have.
Don't you think it's about time our people had hate? Where does it take them? It takes them to reality, lets them know who the enemy is.
So we're no better than they are.
They hate, we hate.
They use bombs, we use bombs.
Who claimed we're any better? You're a racist.
You've showed great courage.
You've done more to desegregate this country than any man who's ever lived.
But, you see, it didn't cost this country to integrate the lunch counters and buses and toilets.
It didn't cost this country to guarantee the right to vote.
But to end the poverty of black people in this country and give 'em a chance to catch up will cost billions and billions of dollars, and somehow, I don't see that being done by appealing to their conscience.
We'll find a way.
But it'll be non-violent.
You still believe in the white man, don't you? I have no choice but to believe in him.
I have a choice.
I don't expect him to love me.
I don't want his love.
I court his hatred.
I want no part of his society, no part of his values.
The dreary truth about the white man is that he is as flawed as everybody else.
But not only do I object to you on moral grounds, I object to what you're doing on tactical grounds.
If it came down to a show of arms, we are only ten percent of the population.
You are advocating suicide.
Maybe, but it's better than living like this.
There is something else.
There is non-violent resistance.
Are you still talking about Gandhi? You are not Gandhi.
You're a middle-class Southern preacher's son.
What I am isn't important.
Why don't you use your charisma, your your brilliance, to help our people live, and not die? Because they hurt us too much.
Because there's no living with him because he'll lie and deceive us in the end.
The final truth isn't that you hate the white man.
You see, you hate being black.
You can't see beyond your own personal rejection.
This country respects violence.
Sometimes I think it's the only thing that it respects.
You hold on to your position, you'll get discredited by your own people.
Martin, I can help those demonstrations in Chicago succeed.
Modify your stance on non-violence.
We'll appear nationally together.
It's the best thing for our people.
I can't.
At least we have one thing in common we're both dead men.
I love you.
You may not believe it, but it's true.
I love you.
You're a glorious fool.
You're the Blackstone Rangers, huh? I understand you're supposed to be tough.
- It's King! - You're jiving, man! - You Dr.
King? - Never mind about that.
Who can I play with? I want to play with the best player.
- That's me! - No, man, it's me! Y'all make up your mind, now! You take him, Fred.
Rack 'em up there.
Ten dollars on Dr.
King.
- All right.
- Oh, yeah.
Give me some of that money.
Look at that shot! I believe the doctor is a good pool player! We're making progress.
We've put on seventy new housing inspectors and we've come up with a list of 125 housing violations.
And we're going to prosecute those violators.
These aren't the real offenders.
They're just small landlords.
Chicago has lasted for a long time.
It's a tough city.
You're not gonna change it overnight.
We've found over the long haul, unless it is changed overnight, it'll never be changed.
We agree with all of your aims, Dr.
King.
It's just a matter of the art of the possible.
We represent our constituents, and our constituents are troubled by the demands you're making.
Which demands? Minimum wages? School desegregation? The dispersal of blacks from concentrated areas? The same rental conditions as anybody else? As I say, we agree with you, but you know what it is? There is talk around town among the white workers that the blacks have been getting too much.
And, uh, that they'll soon have their jobs.
That's because there are cynical people in politics and the press that prey on people's fears that have no foundation.
I suppose we have no choice but to recruit as many demonstrators as we can, to fill the jails, and boycott businesses that discriminate against blacks.
I wouldn't do that.
This isn't Birmingham or Selma.
You haven't been in Chicago before.
There's a certain tradition here.
It was the home of Al Capone for years you know? What is it now? Dinner's just ready.
May I come in? Of course.
- Hello, Martin.
- Hello, Bea.
Will you stay for dinner? I just have a few minutes.
I have to go to this meeting at the N.
A.
A.
C.
P.
You'd better eat.
You'll need your strength.
Stanley, I'm gonna jump off a cliff.
What are you gonna do now? Maybe I can stop you.
Come out against Vietnam.
That's jumping off a cliff.
Somebody has to speak out against it.
Long as you know what it means.
How have you been, Stan? Fine.
Forgive me.
There's nothing to forgive.
No, I should have kept you on, no matter what.
It was my suggestion that I go.
I need you.
What about the F.
B.
I? I want you to be my friend again.
I always was, Martin.
Well, then let somebody try to make something out of it.
Do you know what you are doing? We're just here for the weekend, Dad.
Let's enjoy our dinner.
But he's got to know what he's doing! A black man does not venture out and give advice on foreign policy! I've never thought of myself as just a black leader.
Perhaps I should, but I can't.
They can frame you! They can destroy you! Dad, they've done so much already.
Let him enjoy his dinner, King.
I am frightened! I'm frightened! Do you know what you're doing? You're going to destroy the movement! Lyndon Johnson is the best friend Negroes has ever had! All he has to do is just hear you're gonna make a statement like that! Everything everything we've worked for this past eight years, everything people have died for, will all go out the window for the sake of a gesture that will do no good.
You can't fight with the most powerful man in the world and win! If I thought it would do any good, I would be with you, but it won't do any good! How can you say that? Every day you see black boys coming home mutilated mentally and physically.
Every night on your television set you see the destruction of hundreds of thousands of children with napalm.
But even if it wasn't for black boys and brown babies, even if it was only for white people, I would still speak out.
You always have been a small-time preacher.
You have delusions of grandeur.
Wally! All the funds for black people are gonna be tied up and destroyed! Do you understand that? All this talk about underfed children and corruption of the system you eat all right.
If anything, you're overfed! Look at what's happening to us! Look at what's happening right in this room! Can't you make him understand what he's doing? I've tried.
Haven't you heard me try? He knows the consequences.
He knows 'em better than anyone else.
Albert Einstein said, "The world is too dangerous to live in, "not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.
" I've come out tonight to break my silence about the war in Vietnam.
King, speaking out against the Vietnam war, allowed us to make our greatest efforts to take him off his pedestal.
We were given the green light on every project that we'd had on the back burner for years.
The monographs that Robert Kennedy had recalled were circulated again.
We gave copies of them to friendly newspapermen.
People don't realize how many strong contacts we have on even the most so-called liberal newspapers.
We forged letters in King's handwriting saying that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for funds that were suspected of being misappropriated.
Sanitize it, please.
I don't want any F.
B.
I.
Prints on it.
It's a dirty, rough business, destroying someone's family life.
It's dangerous, too.
- Mail it from Miami.
- What is it? You don't want to know what it is.
This came in the mail.
It doesn't have any name on the envelope.
It's a tape.
Should I throw it away? Oh, here's something.
What is it? "King, you are a fraud.
" Go on.
"There's only one thing left for you to do.
You know what it is.
You are done.
" "There is but one way out for you.
"You'd better take it before your filthy, fraudulent self is bared to the nation.
" Should I play it? No.
Where's Martin? I-I think he's at the office.
Ask him to come in, please.
Are you listening to me now? I know you've planted microphones.
I've found them before.
Are you waiting to see what I'm going to do? Are you waiting to see if I'm gonna cry? Have you played it? No.
Then play it.
I don't want to listen to it.
Cory shall I tell you the truth about the rumors? No.
You don't have to tell me anything.
Just put your arms around me.
All I know is that you're the most wonderful man I've ever known in my life and that you've been a wonderful husband and father to the kids.
I've made you suffer so much.
I'm never at home.
You and the kids have had to live under such danger.
Oh, Martin! Martin! Do you think I would have traded my life for anything? I can't tell you what it's been like living all this time with you.
Even the hard times.
Even the worst of them.
You've taught me what being alive is.
It isn't being afraid to love somebody.
Martin.
We'll be all right, won't we? - Won't we? - Yes.
Son? What's the matter? Can I do something for you? I'm fine.
I'll get someone else to preach your sermon for today.
No.
No, Dad.
I'll be all right.
You know, every now and then I think about my own death.
I don't think about it in a morbid sense but, like anybody, every now and then I ask myself what it is I would want said.
And if any of you are around when I have to meet that day, tell 'em I don't want a long funeral.
Tell 'em not to talk too long.
Tell 'em not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize.
That isn't important.
Tell 'em not to mention where I went to school.
But I'd like for somebody to mention on that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tried to give his life serving others.
I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tried to love somebody.
I want you to be able to say that day that I was right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that I did try to feed the hungry.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe the naked, that I did try in my life to visit those that were in prison.
Yes, if you want to call me a drum major, call me a drum major for justice, call me a drum major for peace, and all the other shallow things will not matter.
I won't have any money to leave behind.
I won't have any of the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind.
But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or a song, if I can show somebody that he's traveling wrong, well, then my living will not be in vain.
Mrs.
King is here.
I'm, uh, busy right now.
Sure you don't have a moment to see me, Damon? It's all right.
Please sit down.
I have your article on Martin.
I didn't want to write that.
I had to.
You had to? You had to say that Martin's ego was completely out of bounds and that he could never again be trusted to lead the black movement? Yes.
And I believe that.
I have a great affection for Martin as much affection as any man I've ever met.
But he's done the movement a great harm a harm it may never recover from.
Why? He's alienated Johnson.
He's cut off funds for our people, he's put a slur on black patriotism.
You don't believe that.
Yes, I do believe that.
Coretta, if black people are to be enfranchised, they must participate in our nation's crises just like any other American.
This is a necessary war for black people as well as for white people.
You don't believe that for one moment.
Damon, you are one of the brightest men I have ever known.
And you know that this is the most unjust and brutal war in our history.
Shall I tell you what it is, Damon? You're fifty, and you're frightened.
What did they give you, Damon? A place in the administration? Did they give you a grant? Black boys are killing and being killed for nothing at all! And no one is speaking out, Damon, no one! People we've always read about, people we've admired, not one black leader not Roy Wilkins, not Senator Brooke, not Ralph Bunche, not Carl Rowan no one! One day we're gonna look back, and we'll see that the worst crime against black people is this Vietnam war! By that time no one will remember, will they? But you'll remember, Damon.
You will.
All right, come down! Come down or I'll fire! Why don't you go back to where you came from? Get out of here, niggers! Why don't you go home? You all right, Dr.
King? - What? - You all right, Dr.
King? Yes.
I've been hit so many times, I'm immune to it.
You can't go on! It's too dangerous! Daley is willing to give us a Commission on Open Housing.
He doesn't want another Marquette Park, either.
It isn't what we started out for, but no one else could've gotten it.
You know, I can't forget those faces in Marquette Park.
People from Mississippi should come up here to learn how to hate.
You knew it wasn't only in the South.
No, but I didn't know the extent of it here.
What is it in the American people that makes it so necessary to hate? I mean, why is it necessary to look down on someone? Can't they see that the more progress that we make, the better it is for them? We're all fighting the same battle.
Do we accept the conditions? No more marches, open housing? Yes, yes.
It's a beginning.
It's a victory, in a way.
No it's a defeat.
You can tell others it's a victory, but it's a defeat, and we know it.
Old Daley has out-maneuvered us.
But we'll be back.
We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly.
The war in Vietnam is just a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.
I am convinced that we as a nation must undergo a revolution of values.
We must rapidly begin to change from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.
When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, then we are in deep trouble.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin at a beggar.
A true revolution of values will look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.
A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just.
"This business of burning human beings with napalm, "filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, "of injecting poisonous drugs of hate "into the veins of people normally humane, "sending them home from dark and bloody battlefields "physically handicapped and psychologically deranged cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
" A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military expense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
I'm tired of hearing what's best for blacks and whites.
Later for whites, now for us! That's right, black power! Black power, that's right! No! Oh, no! I'm not gonna allow anybody to pull me so low as to use their methods to perpetuate evil throughout our system.
I am sick and tired of violence! I'm tired of the war in Vietnam! I'm tired of hate! I'm tired of selfishness! I'm tired of evil! I'm not going to use violence, no matter who says so! How have you been, darlin'? Your children out at work? What did you say? I say, your children at home? I-I'm feeling good.
Oh, good.
I'm glad to see that.
Well, you're lookin' good, too.
Well, thank you.
Good.
Yes.
What's your name? - Walter.
- Walker? Walter.
That's right, that's right.
If only Congress could come down here and see what's happening.
They're cutting back on food stamps and the soil bank program.
Congress will never come down here, but maybe we can take these people to Congress.
What are you talking about? I'm talking about taking these people to Washington.
- To Washington? - That's right.
It'd be a hard, long trip.
Long way from Marks, Mississippi.
We can crawl, we can walk and then we can thumb a little while.
I know you'll get a ride pretty fast, won't you? That's right.
Just when we gonna take this journey? Well, it's going to take some planning and a lot of work on everybody's part.
I mean, we all have to pitch in, organize, and let everybody know why we're coming and understand what we're going there for.
That's true.
We'll have to plan on how long we're gonna stay.
Gonna have to be a lot of camping out on the highway.
Ain't nothing wrong with that.
When are y'all going to leave? Well, we're gonna leave Marks probably tonight, aren't we? - Yeah, tonight.
- Yeah.
We're gonna go on up the road a bit and see some more people, then we're gonna push on.
Come back and gather us up.
And then we all be goin' to Washington.
That's what we gonna do.
- Get out of Marks.
- I'm ready, too.
The Poor People's Campaign will be drawn from Roxbury in Boston to Lawndale in Chicago, from Marks in Mississippi to Wheeling in West Virginia, to Hollister in California.
The campaign will consist of not only blacks, but Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, poor whites, Appalachians.
What do you intend to accomplish by this? We plan to place the problem of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.
Now, if that government fails to acknowledge its debt to the poor, then it will have failed to have lived up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of its citizens.
And we intend to stay in Washington until they do live up to it.
Don't you think you'll get a great deal of criticism? There's a lot of backlash about the dangers of a welfare state.
These people want jobs, not handouts.
What are you going to do about incidents of violence in the Capitol? There will be no incidents of violence.
The whole concept of non-violence is being questioned, even by your own people.
If I'm the last person in this country to speak for non-violence, then I will be that person.
What in the hell are you doin' in here? It's raining like hell out there.
You know the rules.
You're not allowed to hang out in here.
They just wanted to get in out of the rain, but that's against the rules.
Black garbage workers in Memphis can't stand in the office when it rains.
What about their families? They're not entitled to any kind of compensation.
The families get nothing.
Andy.
Gene was just telling us about those two men who were killed in Memphis.
We tried to march on Monday.
We went down to have a demonstration on Main Street, at the Mason Temple they Maced us.
- They want me to come down.
- Can't do it.
We're scheduled to arrive in Washington on the Poor People's March on the 20th.
All we want him to do is just go downtown, give a speech down there, and go back to the airport.
It shouldn't take more than an hour and a half.
Martin we shouldn't take any detours.
We have enough on our hands.
It would be the biggest thing in their lives.
When were you planning it? Wednesday.
We don't have time to prepare security.
There's no problem with security.
Hey, you gonna walk on the water? Uncle Chicken Wing! You 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 out of 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! Let's get him out of here! Come on! Let's get him out of here! Get in there! I'm Detective Redditt.
Follow me, I'll get you through.
Twelve years just twelve years.
Could he bounce back again, or had it been one time too many? What is this? A wake? Come on, I'm hungry! Cory, why don't you fix us something to eat? Oh You know, the scariest time was when we was in Philadelphia when you asked me to say that prayer.
Well, you said it with your eyes open.
I'm afraid I did, Brother Young.
And then you said, "Who knows? "The murderers of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner might be somewhere near.
" And they said, "We're right behind you.
" You know, I think the worst time for me was Chicago.
We marched about five miles that day, didn't we, Ralph? They had at least four thousand policemen tryin' to protect us, but I tell you, every time we looked around somebody was gettin' their nose broken! We had to go down this narrow street with all these trees standin' up over, and the policemen went on ahead and they was shootin' up in the air, calling the people, "Come on! Get outta them trees!" 'Cause you know they were up in them trees to try to shoot us.
Well, all of a sudden there was a boom! And you saw four thousand policemen duck down all together all at once! I'll never forget that as long as I live! Hello, Jerry.
Hello, Andy.
Did you talk to Martin? No, I haven't talked to him.
It's impossible.
He said he would come! He can't say no, and I think it's wrong for you to press him.
We gave you a march, and it almost killed us.
Andy, non-violence is on trial now.
We'll have to vindicate it somewhere else.
Hello, this is M.
L.
When is that march? Friday.
I'll be there.
We're thinking about changing the whole country.
You can't go back to Memphis.
It's an unnecessary risk! And you and I know that non-violence is on trial in Memphis, Andy.
Besides, they're expecting me.
I can't disappoint them, now can I? They're garbage collectors! And that's why it's important that we go down there! I'm frightened for you.
And I'm frightened, too.
You know, you never get over being frightened.
You think you do, but it's always there, around some corner, waitin' for you waitin' to engulf you, and you have no control over it.
But the only thing we ever had to fight with, the only thing any of us ever had to fight with, was to say, "I'm not afraid.
"Do with us what you want.
We're going on.
" And once we said that there was no weapon that could stop us.
So we can't be afraid now.
See, Tony? I told you you'd get to Funtown.
What do you want to go on? I gotta make up my mind.
How about a candy apple? Yeah, over there.
Come on, let's go.
- You want one, don't you, Yoki? - Yes! I wanna go on this one! Martin, what are you doing? You know you can't ride on those things without getting sick! He wants to ride it.
You want to go? Oh, no, not me.
I don't wanna ride on it.
What about you, Yoki? Come on, Marty.
Put your arms up above your head.
Daddy, what's the matter? Dad? M.
L! M.
L! Wait.
A.
D.
- I almost missed you.
- What are you doing? I want to go with you.
All right, come on! Here, put this in the back.
Sit up in front with me.
Why didn't you call? We woulda had somebody pick you up.
It looks like an armed camp.
Jerry I want to speak to those boys who pushed Martin.
Why is it you were never interested in the strike before? The guys got me interested in it.
Why did you push Dr.
King forward? Do you like pushing him? No! At home they think of him as Jesus Christ.
Is that how you reward him, you push him? Dr.
King, you have to understand.
We He's not going to understand.
None of us are going to understand what you and the others were doing there! We were paid.
You were paid? By whom? I don't know.
Those two men were murdered.
We've got to do something! Harold, you're a born loner.
Why were you interested in that strike? We've got to do some fighting.
Not marching fighting! Don't give me that stuff! The only thing you give a damn about is your own precious behind! A Morehouse man, an honor's degree, and you care about garbage workers? Don't make me laugh! What the hell is this, an inquisition? What right do you have to bring? George talked.
- That stupid - Who paid you? Who paid you to interrupt that march? Don't tell people 'round here.
They think he's the Lord God Almighty.
Who was it? The F.
B.
I.
Get get him in the other room.
They have 'em at a lot of demonstrations.
I'm not the only one.
Out.
Maybe we should get out of Memphis.
And go where? You think it's gonna be different anyplace else? - Hey.
- Hi, Fred.
Whatcha doin'? Security.
What went wrong the last time? I don't know.
But nothin's gonna go wrong this time.
I know everybody who travels with King.
I know their cars, I know their license numbers.
Anything looks wrong, I'll know about it.
Goin' to the meeting tonight? Sure.
Might have a chance to hear him speak.
I'm gonna march in the demonstration tomorrow.
- Your shot.
- In a minute.
You may lose your job.
I don't care.
I know what they're fighting for.
I know they're right.
Hey, Wilson! Mechanic's here to work on your rig.
Hey, Dan.
You and I and Fred are the only black men here.
We're the only ones who give a damn about him.
Let me know if you hear anything, will ya? Sure.
Yeah.
Hello? - Hello.
- Hello, Martin.
Did you get your flowers? No.
I was downtown picking up a suit, and Don't tell me you broke down and bought a suit? Well, there was this florist next door.
That man swore that he was gonna deliver those flowers right away.
Maybe that's them now.
Well, I got them.
Good.
They're beautiful, Martin.
But they're they're artificial.
I thought you didn't like artificial flowers.
I just wanted to give you something that would last.
I'm very sorry Dr.
King can't be here tonight.
He's tired and preparing for the march on Friday.
We want King! We want King! Martin.
Hello, Ralph.
Hey, listen, you better come over here.
- Why? What happened? - They want you.
Ralph, I told you I wasn't going to speak tonight.
If you don't come over here, they're gonna come over there and get you.
You gotta be kidding.
Nobody's there in this kind of weather.
No? Listen to this.
We want King! We want King! All right, I'll be right over.
You know, several years ago I was in New York City, where I was stabbed.
The tip of the blade was on the edge of the aorta of my heart, and once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood, that's the end of you.
If I had merely sneezed, I would have died.
Well, a letter came from a little girl, and it said simply, "Dear Dr.
King, I'm a ninth grade student at the White Plains High School.
" And she went on to say that, "While it should not matter, "I would like to mention that I'm a white girl.
"And I am simply writing you to say that I am so happy that you didn't sneeze.
" Well, I want to say to you tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn't sneeze.
Yes! Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961 when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1963 when the black people in Birmingham, Alabama, desegregated the most powerful industrial city in the South.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see a great movement rouse the conscience of this nation, which made it possible to make a voting rights bill so that black people could vote and change the history of this country.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around its sanitation brothers and sisters who are suffering.
Because garbage workers are as important as anybody.
They have dignity, and they have worth! Now, today we have come into Memphis and some things have happened.
There is talk about what might happen to me from some of our sick white brethren.
Well, I don't know what's gonna happen now.
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop and I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I have seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land! You know, I'm happy tonight.
I'm happy tonight! I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! Thank you for coming.
Hello.
Hudson? This is headquarters.
Tomorrow's your day off, isn't it? That's right.
We're transferring you to Station Eight Friday.
Eight? That's right.
Okay.
- Yeah? - Fred? Yeah.
This is headquarters.
You're transferred to Eleven tomorrow.
Why? Those are the orders.
It's 11:30.
I've never been transferred at 11:30 before.
- Is anything the matter? - Nope.
Well, why the transfer? We're short down there.
Those are the orders.
- Holloman wants to see you.
- I'm on security here.
He said right away.
Where's Fred? He's transferred.
Come on.
Let's go.
Come on in, Ed.
Chief, what's happening? This man's from the government.
There's been a threat made on your life.
He just flew in from Washington.
He has information that there's a contract out of St.
Louis on you.
Now, I've made reservations at a motel to take you and your family there for safety, so there'll be no problem.
Let 'em stay at home.
And I'll stay on the street.
Or better yet, at the fire station.
No, I take care of my men.
I'm relievin' you from your duty.
- Bailey, Anderson.
- I'm not goin' to the motel.
If they're gonna get me, let 'em get me on the street and let my family be safe.
All right.
Whatever you say.
But for your protection, Bailey and Anderson will go with you.
You're a good man, Ed.
We don't wanna lose you.
This is an order.
Martin? Martin? Martin? Hey, Martin Hey, man! What's the matter with you? Why didn't you call in? How many times must we tell you, you got to check in? I was downtown seein' about the injunction.
I don't care about that.
You got to let the leader know what's happenin'! Bernard and I will come down there and pull you out of that court and call you everything but a child of God.
What's the matter, your finger broke? Couldn't borrow a dime from somebody? Martin, don't tickle me, please.
Hey, Martin, don't tickle me, now! Come on, Martin! Forgive me, Martin! Come on, fellas! Come on, Martin, don't tickle me! I'm gonna knock the black off you! No, that's it.
That is it! Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
A.
D.
, help me.
Raise 'em, then have 'em turn on you! I thought it was the end, really the end.
I mean, him sittin' there with funk on his shoulders.
I never seen him bounce back like that, to come out of a complete state of depression.
Ben! Hello! Hey, Martin, you know Ben.
Ben Branch he used to live in Memphis.
Yes! My man! How are you, Ben? Hi, Doc.
Listen, I want you to play Precious Lord take my hand for me tonight on the organ, and play it real pretty, will ya? I sure will, Doc.
All right.
It's getting pretty cold, Dr.
King.
You better need a coat.
Yeah, it is kind of airish tonight, isn't it? Doc, I've got the car.
I can carry five or six with me.
All right.
Say something tonight about the poor people's campaign.
Come on, Martin, quit horsin' around.
Oh, God! Oh, God! Martin.
Get an ambulance! Get help! Get an ambulance! Can you feel anything? Yeah, yeah, I feel something.
He's gonna be all right, isn't he? He'll be all right, he'll be all right.
He's gonna be all right.
What happened? Would somebody get A.
D?! Get that operator! Get the ambulance! Get the ambulance! I can't reach the operator! I can't get ambulance! Somebody get my God! Somebody call an ambulance! Get an ambulance! I can't reach the operator! Do something! Do something! A.
D! A.
D.
, please! Hurry! Hurry, somebody! For God's sake, get the ambulance, man! Where did the shots come from? Make room.
Make room.
Let us take care of him.
No, no, we'll take care of him.
We'll take care of him.
- Watch out for his head.
- I got his head.
- Careful.
- I got him.
It's all right.
- Watch his legs.
- Put his legs in there.
- Go! - Let's move him.
Okay, stand clear.
Watch that corner! Hello? Coretta, Doc's been shot.
Why don't you take the next plane here? Bring someone with you.
We're at St.
Joseph's Hospital.
- Is it bad? - He's not dead.
What is it? This is an NBC News Hotline Special Report.
Don't tell me, don't tell me! Martin Luther King was shot outside a Memphis hotel this evening.
His condition not immediately known, but he was taken to a hospital.
Lou Wood, NBC News, New York.
I'm goin' to Memphis.
All right, ready? One, two, three, go.
Sponge.
Nancy, give me some check, please.
Blood pressure.
E.
K.
G.
Lead.
Let's get a pressure cuff over there.
Let's get blood pressure over there.
E.
K.
G.
Hooked up.
Start massage.
You can't stand here.
Now, you're gonna have to go.
Your business is at that table.
Don't worry about us.
We're not gonna leave.
Come on, come on! I'm sorry.
We've lost him.
I had to go and take just one more look.
Dr.
King! Dr.
King! Why didn't God take me instead of Dr.
King? Thomas, Hudson, and I were transferred.
They have excuses for why they did it that'll never hold up.
Just don't happen like that.
It just don't happen that way.
They'll never make me believe it was coincidental.
I shoulda stayed there, no matter what.
I shoulda stayed.
Mrs.
King, Mrs.
King, please check for a message at the information desk in the main lobby.
Mrs.
King! Mrs.
King! Mrs.
King.
Tell me.
Dr.
King is dead.
It's my sad duty to tell you your son is dead.
He died at 8:30.
He always told me it would come.
But it was my greatest wish that I would go before him.
Tell his mother.
- Where you going, A.
D? - I'm gonna talk to the reporters.
What are you gonna say to them, A.
D? I wanna talk to 'em.
I wanna speak to 'em.
I'm gonna tell them how I feel about my brother.
I wanna talk to 'em.
I wanna tell them how I feel about the way they killed my brother.
I wanna tell them what white America did to my brother! You don't want to do that, A.
D.
I want you to listen to this! I wanna tell 'em what they did! I don't care! They killed my brother! He wouldn't want you to.
Hey, man, that man never could he was awkward with a bat.
He never could never could hit worth a damn.
He always had a hard head.
Always had a hard head! It was it was my birthday.
Did they know about that? Did they know about it? Did you see what happened? Why'd they do that to him? Did you see what they looked like? Oh, my God.
What happened? Where where's my brother? No, wait, wait, wait.
Where's my brother? All right, all right, all right, all right.
I want to tell 'em! No, let me just tell 'em.
One time, I want to tell you you killed my brother! My brother he always loved people! He took care of people.
He always liked people.
Sure you want to go through this? I don't want any autopsy notes destroyed the way they were in Dallas.
It isn't all of him, A.
D.
It isn't all of him.
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.
I have a dream today.
And when we let freedom ring, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of that old Negro spiritual "Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" But it doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I've looked over, and I have seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
You know, I'm happy tonight.
I'm happy tonight! I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
Could you? I don't know why I couldn't take off a couple of years, anyway.
Do you think you could leave the movement for that long? Oh, sure.
I mean, there's Andy.
He's coming along fine.
And Ralph, of course.
You know what I was really thinking about? You know, I've never been home when our last three babies were born.
Unless I do something, I'm gonna miss their childhood.
I'm gonna miss it forever.
Put that thing out of my face! Put it on Bernie, the birthday girl.
Now, go on, you're gonna break that camera.
That cost too much money.
It's her party.
Go on.
Lord have mercy.
No! But Martin never was able to accept a position as pastor.
There was Watts and there was Vietnam.
We want to welcome you.
Chicago is a big town.
It likes to welcome big people, and you're one of the biggest.
We welcome Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize winner, who fights for the betterment of America.
All right-thinking people share his views.
Now, we have a whole schedule for you a march through the Loop to the lakefront, an appearance on The Today Show Dr.
King didn't come here just to make appearances this time.
He came here to talk about jobs and housing and schools.
The schools and housing in Chicago is the best for blacks in any city in the United States.
- How much you want for this? - Ninety dollars a month.
- That's a lot, isn't it? - Make up your mind.
You won't find anything else at any better rates.
I'll take it.
And this place pays ninety dollars a month unfurnished.
Mommy, it smells here! Yoki, we're gonna live here for a while.
Most of our people live just this way.
You didn't tell me Martin Luther King was in the building.
We're gonna live here.
I'll talk to the landlord.
He'll get some paint, new furniture fix it up a little.
No.
We'll take it just as it is.
Just as it is.
This way, gentlemen.
Come right over here.
You'll want to get a picture of that, please.
There, take a picture of that right over there.
And I'm sure you'll want to have a picture of this right here.
Get a picture right over here by this window.
This is our new home.
It's nice of you to visit me.
I don't usually get such a distinguished visitor.
I'm here to ask you to stop telling our people to burn down their own neighborhoods.
That's the last thing I'd do.
They're finding their manhood out there.
I've watched you for a long time.
What else do you have to offer besides hate? Hate is something to have.
Don't you think it's about time our people had hate? Where does it take them? It takes them to reality, lets them know who the enemy is.
So we're no better than they are.
They hate, we hate.
They use bombs, we use bombs.
Who claimed we're any better? You're a racist.
You've showed great courage.
You've done more to desegregate this country than any man who's ever lived.
But, you see, it didn't cost this country to integrate the lunch counters and buses and toilets.
It didn't cost this country to guarantee the right to vote.
But to end the poverty of black people in this country and give 'em a chance to catch up will cost billions and billions of dollars, and somehow, I don't see that being done by appealing to their conscience.
We'll find a way.
But it'll be non-violent.
You still believe in the white man, don't you? I have no choice but to believe in him.
I have a choice.
I don't expect him to love me.
I don't want his love.
I court his hatred.
I want no part of his society, no part of his values.
The dreary truth about the white man is that he is as flawed as everybody else.
But not only do I object to you on moral grounds, I object to what you're doing on tactical grounds.
If it came down to a show of arms, we are only ten percent of the population.
You are advocating suicide.
Maybe, but it's better than living like this.
There is something else.
There is non-violent resistance.
Are you still talking about Gandhi? You are not Gandhi.
You're a middle-class Southern preacher's son.
What I am isn't important.
Why don't you use your charisma, your your brilliance, to help our people live, and not die? Because they hurt us too much.
Because there's no living with him because he'll lie and deceive us in the end.
The final truth isn't that you hate the white man.
You see, you hate being black.
You can't see beyond your own personal rejection.
This country respects violence.
Sometimes I think it's the only thing that it respects.
You hold on to your position, you'll get discredited by your own people.
Martin, I can help those demonstrations in Chicago succeed.
Modify your stance on non-violence.
We'll appear nationally together.
It's the best thing for our people.
I can't.
At least we have one thing in common we're both dead men.
I love you.
You may not believe it, but it's true.
I love you.
You're a glorious fool.
You're the Blackstone Rangers, huh? I understand you're supposed to be tough.
- It's King! - You're jiving, man! - You Dr.
King? - Never mind about that.
Who can I play with? I want to play with the best player.
- That's me! - No, man, it's me! Y'all make up your mind, now! You take him, Fred.
Rack 'em up there.
Ten dollars on Dr.
King.
- All right.
- Oh, yeah.
Give me some of that money.
Look at that shot! I believe the doctor is a good pool player! We're making progress.
We've put on seventy new housing inspectors and we've come up with a list of 125 housing violations.
And we're going to prosecute those violators.
These aren't the real offenders.
They're just small landlords.
Chicago has lasted for a long time.
It's a tough city.
You're not gonna change it overnight.
We've found over the long haul, unless it is changed overnight, it'll never be changed.
We agree with all of your aims, Dr.
King.
It's just a matter of the art of the possible.
We represent our constituents, and our constituents are troubled by the demands you're making.
Which demands? Minimum wages? School desegregation? The dispersal of blacks from concentrated areas? The same rental conditions as anybody else? As I say, we agree with you, but you know what it is? There is talk around town among the white workers that the blacks have been getting too much.
And, uh, that they'll soon have their jobs.
That's because there are cynical people in politics and the press that prey on people's fears that have no foundation.
I suppose we have no choice but to recruit as many demonstrators as we can, to fill the jails, and boycott businesses that discriminate against blacks.
I wouldn't do that.
This isn't Birmingham or Selma.
You haven't been in Chicago before.
There's a certain tradition here.
It was the home of Al Capone for years you know? What is it now? Dinner's just ready.
May I come in? Of course.
- Hello, Martin.
- Hello, Bea.
Will you stay for dinner? I just have a few minutes.
I have to go to this meeting at the N.
A.
A.
C.
P.
You'd better eat.
You'll need your strength.
Stanley, I'm gonna jump off a cliff.
What are you gonna do now? Maybe I can stop you.
Come out against Vietnam.
That's jumping off a cliff.
Somebody has to speak out against it.
Long as you know what it means.
How have you been, Stan? Fine.
Forgive me.
There's nothing to forgive.
No, I should have kept you on, no matter what.
It was my suggestion that I go.
I need you.
What about the F.
B.
I? I want you to be my friend again.
I always was, Martin.
Well, then let somebody try to make something out of it.
Do you know what you are doing? We're just here for the weekend, Dad.
Let's enjoy our dinner.
But he's got to know what he's doing! A black man does not venture out and give advice on foreign policy! I've never thought of myself as just a black leader.
Perhaps I should, but I can't.
They can frame you! They can destroy you! Dad, they've done so much already.
Let him enjoy his dinner, King.
I am frightened! I'm frightened! Do you know what you're doing? You're going to destroy the movement! Lyndon Johnson is the best friend Negroes has ever had! All he has to do is just hear you're gonna make a statement like that! Everything everything we've worked for this past eight years, everything people have died for, will all go out the window for the sake of a gesture that will do no good.
You can't fight with the most powerful man in the world and win! If I thought it would do any good, I would be with you, but it won't do any good! How can you say that? Every day you see black boys coming home mutilated mentally and physically.
Every night on your television set you see the destruction of hundreds of thousands of children with napalm.
But even if it wasn't for black boys and brown babies, even if it was only for white people, I would still speak out.
You always have been a small-time preacher.
You have delusions of grandeur.
Wally! All the funds for black people are gonna be tied up and destroyed! Do you understand that? All this talk about underfed children and corruption of the system you eat all right.
If anything, you're overfed! Look at what's happening to us! Look at what's happening right in this room! Can't you make him understand what he's doing? I've tried.
Haven't you heard me try? He knows the consequences.
He knows 'em better than anyone else.
Albert Einstein said, "The world is too dangerous to live in, "not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.
" I've come out tonight to break my silence about the war in Vietnam.
King, speaking out against the Vietnam war, allowed us to make our greatest efforts to take him off his pedestal.
We were given the green light on every project that we'd had on the back burner for years.
The monographs that Robert Kennedy had recalled were circulated again.
We gave copies of them to friendly newspapermen.
People don't realize how many strong contacts we have on even the most so-called liberal newspapers.
We forged letters in King's handwriting saying that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for funds that were suspected of being misappropriated.
Sanitize it, please.
I don't want any F.
B.
I.
Prints on it.
It's a dirty, rough business, destroying someone's family life.
It's dangerous, too.
- Mail it from Miami.
- What is it? You don't want to know what it is.
This came in the mail.
It doesn't have any name on the envelope.
It's a tape.
Should I throw it away? Oh, here's something.
What is it? "King, you are a fraud.
" Go on.
"There's only one thing left for you to do.
You know what it is.
You are done.
" "There is but one way out for you.
"You'd better take it before your filthy, fraudulent self is bared to the nation.
" Should I play it? No.
Where's Martin? I-I think he's at the office.
Ask him to come in, please.
Are you listening to me now? I know you've planted microphones.
I've found them before.
Are you waiting to see what I'm going to do? Are you waiting to see if I'm gonna cry? Have you played it? No.
Then play it.
I don't want to listen to it.
Cory shall I tell you the truth about the rumors? No.
You don't have to tell me anything.
Just put your arms around me.
All I know is that you're the most wonderful man I've ever known in my life and that you've been a wonderful husband and father to the kids.
I've made you suffer so much.
I'm never at home.
You and the kids have had to live under such danger.
Oh, Martin! Martin! Do you think I would have traded my life for anything? I can't tell you what it's been like living all this time with you.
Even the hard times.
Even the worst of them.
You've taught me what being alive is.
It isn't being afraid to love somebody.
Martin.
We'll be all right, won't we? - Won't we? - Yes.
Son? What's the matter? Can I do something for you? I'm fine.
I'll get someone else to preach your sermon for today.
No.
No, Dad.
I'll be all right.
You know, every now and then I think about my own death.
I don't think about it in a morbid sense but, like anybody, every now and then I ask myself what it is I would want said.
And if any of you are around when I have to meet that day, tell 'em I don't want a long funeral.
Tell 'em not to talk too long.
Tell 'em not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize.
That isn't important.
Tell 'em not to mention where I went to school.
But I'd like for somebody to mention on that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tried to give his life serving others.
I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tried to love somebody.
I want you to be able to say that day that I was right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that I did try to feed the hungry.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe the naked, that I did try in my life to visit those that were in prison.
Yes, if you want to call me a drum major, call me a drum major for justice, call me a drum major for peace, and all the other shallow things will not matter.
I won't have any money to leave behind.
I won't have any of the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind.
But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or a song, if I can show somebody that he's traveling wrong, well, then my living will not be in vain.
Mrs.
King is here.
I'm, uh, busy right now.
Sure you don't have a moment to see me, Damon? It's all right.
Please sit down.
I have your article on Martin.
I didn't want to write that.
I had to.
You had to? You had to say that Martin's ego was completely out of bounds and that he could never again be trusted to lead the black movement? Yes.
And I believe that.
I have a great affection for Martin as much affection as any man I've ever met.
But he's done the movement a great harm a harm it may never recover from.
Why? He's alienated Johnson.
He's cut off funds for our people, he's put a slur on black patriotism.
You don't believe that.
Yes, I do believe that.
Coretta, if black people are to be enfranchised, they must participate in our nation's crises just like any other American.
This is a necessary war for black people as well as for white people.
You don't believe that for one moment.
Damon, you are one of the brightest men I have ever known.
And you know that this is the most unjust and brutal war in our history.
Shall I tell you what it is, Damon? You're fifty, and you're frightened.
What did they give you, Damon? A place in the administration? Did they give you a grant? Black boys are killing and being killed for nothing at all! And no one is speaking out, Damon, no one! People we've always read about, people we've admired, not one black leader not Roy Wilkins, not Senator Brooke, not Ralph Bunche, not Carl Rowan no one! One day we're gonna look back, and we'll see that the worst crime against black people is this Vietnam war! By that time no one will remember, will they? But you'll remember, Damon.
You will.
All right, come down! Come down or I'll fire! Why don't you go back to where you came from? Get out of here, niggers! Why don't you go home? You all right, Dr.
King? - What? - You all right, Dr.
King? Yes.
I've been hit so many times, I'm immune to it.
You can't go on! It's too dangerous! Daley is willing to give us a Commission on Open Housing.
He doesn't want another Marquette Park, either.
It isn't what we started out for, but no one else could've gotten it.
You know, I can't forget those faces in Marquette Park.
People from Mississippi should come up here to learn how to hate.
You knew it wasn't only in the South.
No, but I didn't know the extent of it here.
What is it in the American people that makes it so necessary to hate? I mean, why is it necessary to look down on someone? Can't they see that the more progress that we make, the better it is for them? We're all fighting the same battle.
Do we accept the conditions? No more marches, open housing? Yes, yes.
It's a beginning.
It's a victory, in a way.
No it's a defeat.
You can tell others it's a victory, but it's a defeat, and we know it.
Old Daley has out-maneuvered us.
But we'll be back.
We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly.
The war in Vietnam is just a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.
I am convinced that we as a nation must undergo a revolution of values.
We must rapidly begin to change from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.
When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, then we are in deep trouble.
True compassion is more than flinging a coin at a beggar.
A true revolution of values will look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.
A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just.
"This business of burning human beings with napalm, "filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, "of injecting poisonous drugs of hate "into the veins of people normally humane, "sending them home from dark and bloody battlefields "physically handicapped and psychologically deranged cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
" A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military expense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
I'm tired of hearing what's best for blacks and whites.
Later for whites, now for us! That's right, black power! Black power, that's right! No! Oh, no! I'm not gonna allow anybody to pull me so low as to use their methods to perpetuate evil throughout our system.
I am sick and tired of violence! I'm tired of the war in Vietnam! I'm tired of hate! I'm tired of selfishness! I'm tired of evil! I'm not going to use violence, no matter who says so! How have you been, darlin'? Your children out at work? What did you say? I say, your children at home? I-I'm feeling good.
Oh, good.
I'm glad to see that.
Well, you're lookin' good, too.
Well, thank you.
Good.
Yes.
What's your name? - Walter.
- Walker? Walter.
That's right, that's right.
If only Congress could come down here and see what's happening.
They're cutting back on food stamps and the soil bank program.
Congress will never come down here, but maybe we can take these people to Congress.
What are you talking about? I'm talking about taking these people to Washington.
- To Washington? - That's right.
It'd be a hard, long trip.
Long way from Marks, Mississippi.
We can crawl, we can walk and then we can thumb a little while.
I know you'll get a ride pretty fast, won't you? That's right.
Just when we gonna take this journey? Well, it's going to take some planning and a lot of work on everybody's part.
I mean, we all have to pitch in, organize, and let everybody know why we're coming and understand what we're going there for.
That's true.
We'll have to plan on how long we're gonna stay.
Gonna have to be a lot of camping out on the highway.
Ain't nothing wrong with that.
When are y'all going to leave? Well, we're gonna leave Marks probably tonight, aren't we? - Yeah, tonight.
- Yeah.
We're gonna go on up the road a bit and see some more people, then we're gonna push on.
Come back and gather us up.
And then we all be goin' to Washington.
That's what we gonna do.
- Get out of Marks.
- I'm ready, too.
The Poor People's Campaign will be drawn from Roxbury in Boston to Lawndale in Chicago, from Marks in Mississippi to Wheeling in West Virginia, to Hollister in California.
The campaign will consist of not only blacks, but Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, poor whites, Appalachians.
What do you intend to accomplish by this? We plan to place the problem of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.
Now, if that government fails to acknowledge its debt to the poor, then it will have failed to have lived up to its promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of its citizens.
And we intend to stay in Washington until they do live up to it.
Don't you think you'll get a great deal of criticism? There's a lot of backlash about the dangers of a welfare state.
These people want jobs, not handouts.
What are you going to do about incidents of violence in the Capitol? There will be no incidents of violence.
The whole concept of non-violence is being questioned, even by your own people.
If I'm the last person in this country to speak for non-violence, then I will be that person.
What in the hell are you doin' in here? It's raining like hell out there.
You know the rules.
You're not allowed to hang out in here.
They just wanted to get in out of the rain, but that's against the rules.
Black garbage workers in Memphis can't stand in the office when it rains.
What about their families? They're not entitled to any kind of compensation.
The families get nothing.
Andy.
Gene was just telling us about those two men who were killed in Memphis.
We tried to march on Monday.
We went down to have a demonstration on Main Street, at the Mason Temple they Maced us.
- They want me to come down.
- Can't do it.
We're scheduled to arrive in Washington on the Poor People's March on the 20th.
All we want him to do is just go downtown, give a speech down there, and go back to the airport.
It shouldn't take more than an hour and a half.
Martin we shouldn't take any detours.
We have enough on our hands.
It would be the biggest thing in their lives.
When were you planning it? Wednesday.
We don't have time to prepare security.
There's no problem with security.
Hey, you gonna walk on the water? Uncle Chicken Wing! You 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 out of 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! Let's get him out of here! Come on! Let's get him out of here! Get in there! I'm Detective Redditt.
Follow me, I'll get you through.
Twelve years just twelve years.
Could he bounce back again, or had it been one time too many? What is this? A wake? Come on, I'm hungry! Cory, why don't you fix us something to eat? Oh You know, the scariest time was when we was in Philadelphia when you asked me to say that prayer.
Well, you said it with your eyes open.
I'm afraid I did, Brother Young.
And then you said, "Who knows? "The murderers of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner might be somewhere near.
" And they said, "We're right behind you.
" You know, I think the worst time for me was Chicago.
We marched about five miles that day, didn't we, Ralph? They had at least four thousand policemen tryin' to protect us, but I tell you, every time we looked around somebody was gettin' their nose broken! We had to go down this narrow street with all these trees standin' up over, and the policemen went on ahead and they was shootin' up in the air, calling the people, "Come on! Get outta them trees!" 'Cause you know they were up in them trees to try to shoot us.
Well, all of a sudden there was a boom! And you saw four thousand policemen duck down all together all at once! I'll never forget that as long as I live! Hello, Jerry.
Hello, Andy.
Did you talk to Martin? No, I haven't talked to him.
It's impossible.
He said he would come! He can't say no, and I think it's wrong for you to press him.
We gave you a march, and it almost killed us.
Andy, non-violence is on trial now.
We'll have to vindicate it somewhere else.
Hello, this is M.
L.
When is that march? Friday.
I'll be there.
We're thinking about changing the whole country.
You can't go back to Memphis.
It's an unnecessary risk! And you and I know that non-violence is on trial in Memphis, Andy.
Besides, they're expecting me.
I can't disappoint them, now can I? They're garbage collectors! And that's why it's important that we go down there! I'm frightened for you.
And I'm frightened, too.
You know, you never get over being frightened.
You think you do, but it's always there, around some corner, waitin' for you waitin' to engulf you, and you have no control over it.
But the only thing we ever had to fight with, the only thing any of us ever had to fight with, was to say, "I'm not afraid.
"Do with us what you want.
We're going on.
" And once we said that there was no weapon that could stop us.
So we can't be afraid now.
See, Tony? I told you you'd get to Funtown.
What do you want to go on? I gotta make up my mind.
How about a candy apple? Yeah, over there.
Come on, let's go.
- You want one, don't you, Yoki? - Yes! I wanna go on this one! Martin, what are you doing? You know you can't ride on those things without getting sick! He wants to ride it.
You want to go? Oh, no, not me.
I don't wanna ride on it.
What about you, Yoki? Come on, Marty.
Put your arms up above your head.
Daddy, what's the matter? Dad? M.
L! M.
L! Wait.
A.
D.
- I almost missed you.
- What are you doing? I want to go with you.
All right, come on! Here, put this in the back.
Sit up in front with me.
Why didn't you call? We woulda had somebody pick you up.
It looks like an armed camp.
Jerry I want to speak to those boys who pushed Martin.
Why is it you were never interested in the strike before? The guys got me interested in it.
Why did you push Dr.
King forward? Do you like pushing him? No! At home they think of him as Jesus Christ.
Is that how you reward him, you push him? Dr.
King, you have to understand.
We He's not going to understand.
None of us are going to understand what you and the others were doing there! We were paid.
You were paid? By whom? I don't know.
Those two men were murdered.
We've got to do something! Harold, you're a born loner.
Why were you interested in that strike? We've got to do some fighting.
Not marching fighting! Don't give me that stuff! The only thing you give a damn about is your own precious behind! A Morehouse man, an honor's degree, and you care about garbage workers? Don't make me laugh! What the hell is this, an inquisition? What right do you have to bring? George talked.
- That stupid - Who paid you? Who paid you to interrupt that march? Don't tell people 'round here.
They think he's the Lord God Almighty.
Who was it? The F.
B.
I.
Get get him in the other room.
They have 'em at a lot of demonstrations.
I'm not the only one.
Out.
Maybe we should get out of Memphis.
And go where? You think it's gonna be different anyplace else? - Hey.
- Hi, Fred.
Whatcha doin'? Security.
What went wrong the last time? I don't know.
But nothin's gonna go wrong this time.
I know everybody who travels with King.
I know their cars, I know their license numbers.
Anything looks wrong, I'll know about it.
Goin' to the meeting tonight? Sure.
Might have a chance to hear him speak.
I'm gonna march in the demonstration tomorrow.
- Your shot.
- In a minute.
You may lose your job.
I don't care.
I know what they're fighting for.
I know they're right.
Hey, Wilson! Mechanic's here to work on your rig.
Hey, Dan.
You and I and Fred are the only black men here.
We're the only ones who give a damn about him.
Let me know if you hear anything, will ya? Sure.
Yeah.
Hello? - Hello.
- Hello, Martin.
Did you get your flowers? No.
I was downtown picking up a suit, and Don't tell me you broke down and bought a suit? Well, there was this florist next door.
That man swore that he was gonna deliver those flowers right away.
Maybe that's them now.
Well, I got them.
Good.
They're beautiful, Martin.
But they're they're artificial.
I thought you didn't like artificial flowers.
I just wanted to give you something that would last.
I'm very sorry Dr.
King can't be here tonight.
He's tired and preparing for the march on Friday.
We want King! We want King! Martin.
Hello, Ralph.
Hey, listen, you better come over here.
- Why? What happened? - They want you.
Ralph, I told you I wasn't going to speak tonight.
If you don't come over here, they're gonna come over there and get you.
You gotta be kidding.
Nobody's there in this kind of weather.
No? Listen to this.
We want King! We want King! All right, I'll be right over.
You know, several years ago I was in New York City, where I was stabbed.
The tip of the blade was on the edge of the aorta of my heart, and once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood, that's the end of you.
If I had merely sneezed, I would have died.
Well, a letter came from a little girl, and it said simply, "Dear Dr.
King, I'm a ninth grade student at the White Plains High School.
" And she went on to say that, "While it should not matter, "I would like to mention that I'm a white girl.
"And I am simply writing you to say that I am so happy that you didn't sneeze.
" Well, I want to say to you tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn't sneeze.
Yes! Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961 when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1963 when the black people in Birmingham, Alabama, desegregated the most powerful industrial city in the South.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see a great movement rouse the conscience of this nation, which made it possible to make a voting rights bill so that black people could vote and change the history of this country.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around its sanitation brothers and sisters who are suffering.
Because garbage workers are as important as anybody.
They have dignity, and they have worth! Now, today we have come into Memphis and some things have happened.
There is talk about what might happen to me from some of our sick white brethren.
Well, I don't know what's gonna happen now.
We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop and I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over, and I have seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land! You know, I'm happy tonight.
I'm happy tonight! I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! Thank you for coming.
Hello.
Hudson? This is headquarters.
Tomorrow's your day off, isn't it? That's right.
We're transferring you to Station Eight Friday.
Eight? That's right.
Okay.
- Yeah? - Fred? Yeah.
This is headquarters.
You're transferred to Eleven tomorrow.
Why? Those are the orders.
It's 11:30.
I've never been transferred at 11:30 before.
- Is anything the matter? - Nope.
Well, why the transfer? We're short down there.
Those are the orders.
- Holloman wants to see you.
- I'm on security here.
He said right away.
Where's Fred? He's transferred.
Come on.
Let's go.
Come on in, Ed.
Chief, what's happening? This man's from the government.
There's been a threat made on your life.
He just flew in from Washington.
He has information that there's a contract out of St.
Louis on you.
Now, I've made reservations at a motel to take you and your family there for safety, so there'll be no problem.
Let 'em stay at home.
And I'll stay on the street.
Or better yet, at the fire station.
No, I take care of my men.
I'm relievin' you from your duty.
- Bailey, Anderson.
- I'm not goin' to the motel.
If they're gonna get me, let 'em get me on the street and let my family be safe.
All right.
Whatever you say.
But for your protection, Bailey and Anderson will go with you.
You're a good man, Ed.
We don't wanna lose you.
This is an order.
Martin? Martin? Martin? Hey, Martin Hey, man! What's the matter with you? Why didn't you call in? How many times must we tell you, you got to check in? I was downtown seein' about the injunction.
I don't care about that.
You got to let the leader know what's happenin'! Bernard and I will come down there and pull you out of that court and call you everything but a child of God.
What's the matter, your finger broke? Couldn't borrow a dime from somebody? Martin, don't tickle me, please.
Hey, Martin, don't tickle me, now! Come on, Martin! Forgive me, Martin! Come on, fellas! Come on, Martin, don't tickle me! I'm gonna knock the black off you! No, that's it.
That is it! Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
A.
D.
, help me.
Raise 'em, then have 'em turn on you! I thought it was the end, really the end.
I mean, him sittin' there with funk on his shoulders.
I never seen him bounce back like that, to come out of a complete state of depression.
Ben! Hello! Hey, Martin, you know Ben.
Ben Branch he used to live in Memphis.
Yes! My man! How are you, Ben? Hi, Doc.
Listen, I want you to play Precious Lord take my hand for me tonight on the organ, and play it real pretty, will ya? I sure will, Doc.
All right.
It's getting pretty cold, Dr.
King.
You better need a coat.
Yeah, it is kind of airish tonight, isn't it? Doc, I've got the car.
I can carry five or six with me.
All right.
Say something tonight about the poor people's campaign.
Come on, Martin, quit horsin' around.
Oh, God! Oh, God! Martin.
Get an ambulance! Get help! Get an ambulance! Can you feel anything? Yeah, yeah, I feel something.
He's gonna be all right, isn't he? He'll be all right, he'll be all right.
He's gonna be all right.
What happened? Would somebody get A.
D?! Get that operator! Get the ambulance! Get the ambulance! I can't reach the operator! I can't get ambulance! Somebody get my God! Somebody call an ambulance! Get an ambulance! I can't reach the operator! Do something! Do something! A.
D! A.
D.
, please! Hurry! Hurry, somebody! For God's sake, get the ambulance, man! Where did the shots come from? Make room.
Make room.
Let us take care of him.
No, no, we'll take care of him.
We'll take care of him.
- Watch out for his head.
- I got his head.
- Careful.
- I got him.
It's all right.
- Watch his legs.
- Put his legs in there.
- Go! - Let's move him.
Okay, stand clear.
Watch that corner! Hello? Coretta, Doc's been shot.
Why don't you take the next plane here? Bring someone with you.
We're at St.
Joseph's Hospital.
- Is it bad? - He's not dead.
What is it? This is an NBC News Hotline Special Report.
Don't tell me, don't tell me! Martin Luther King was shot outside a Memphis hotel this evening.
His condition not immediately known, but he was taken to a hospital.
Lou Wood, NBC News, New York.
I'm goin' to Memphis.
All right, ready? One, two, three, go.
Sponge.
Nancy, give me some check, please.
Blood pressure.
E.
K.
G.
Lead.
Let's get a pressure cuff over there.
Let's get blood pressure over there.
E.
K.
G.
Hooked up.
Start massage.
You can't stand here.
Now, you're gonna have to go.
Your business is at that table.
Don't worry about us.
We're not gonna leave.
Come on, come on! I'm sorry.
We've lost him.
I had to go and take just one more look.
Dr.
King! Dr.
King! Why didn't God take me instead of Dr.
King? Thomas, Hudson, and I were transferred.
They have excuses for why they did it that'll never hold up.
Just don't happen like that.
It just don't happen that way.
They'll never make me believe it was coincidental.
I shoulda stayed there, no matter what.
I shoulda stayed.
Mrs.
King, Mrs.
King, please check for a message at the information desk in the main lobby.
Mrs.
King! Mrs.
King! Mrs.
King.
Tell me.
Dr.
King is dead.
It's my sad duty to tell you your son is dead.
He died at 8:30.
He always told me it would come.
But it was my greatest wish that I would go before him.
Tell his mother.
- Where you going, A.
D? - I'm gonna talk to the reporters.
What are you gonna say to them, A.
D? I wanna talk to 'em.
I wanna speak to 'em.
I'm gonna tell them how I feel about my brother.
I wanna talk to 'em.
I wanna tell them how I feel about the way they killed my brother.
I wanna tell them what white America did to my brother! You don't want to do that, A.
D.
I want you to listen to this! I wanna tell 'em what they did! I don't care! They killed my brother! He wouldn't want you to.
Hey, man, that man never could he was awkward with a bat.
He never could never could hit worth a damn.
He always had a hard head.
Always had a hard head! It was it was my birthday.
Did they know about that? Did they know about it? Did you see what happened? Why'd they do that to him? Did you see what they looked like? Oh, my God.
What happened? Where where's my brother? No, wait, wait, wait.
Where's my brother? All right, all right, all right, all right.
I want to tell 'em! No, let me just tell 'em.
One time, I want to tell you you killed my brother! My brother he always loved people! He took care of people.
He always liked people.
Sure you want to go through this? I don't want any autopsy notes destroyed the way they were in Dallas.
It isn't all of him, A.
D.
It isn't all of him.
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.
I have a dream today.
And when we let freedom ring, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of that old Negro spiritual "Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" But it doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I've looked over, and I have seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
You know, I'm happy tonight.
I'm happy tonight! I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!