- Commentary
To help mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we asked NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to recommend three movies worth viewing that honor the life and legacy of the civil rights giant.
The Martin Luther King holiday stirs the conscience deeply. We are moved by Dr. King�s memory and legend for so many reasons. Some of us marched with him. Many of us remember the pain that shot through our nation as word of his assassination spread. Virtually all of us, even those who�like myself�were born after he was killed, imagine and wish for a world in which his life’s mission had been completed.
If Dr. King�s work ever will be finished, we must do as his parents and grandparents did and raise children who are committed to ensuring our nation lives up to the ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence.
To encourage conversations with our children about King’s legacy, I am recommending a few feature films that are appropriate for family viewing and conversation with the teenagers in our lives.
Like the turbulent era that Dr. King lived in, some of these movies are painful to watch. Please watch the trailers to determine whether your child is old enough to handle the subject, and make time after each for discussion.
“Blood Done Sign My Name”:
Set in North Carolina in 1970, this recent film is based on the trial of a racially-motivated killing of a black Vietnam veteran by a white businessman. The story is told from the perspective of the victim�s son Tim Tyson (who currently serves as the historian for the North Carolina NAACP) and longtime civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis.
The power of the film not based the trial itself, but on the reactions it evokes from its observers�the family, friends and community of each of the players. “Blood Done Sign My Name” encapsulates a time and place where racial understanding and power structures are beginning to change. While the outcome of the trial may not come as a surprise, moments of heroism from unlikely places do. The movie reminds us what has become easy to forget in Dr. King�s legacy: that progress in our country was incremental, and far from inevitable.
“4 Little Girls”:
In 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL was bombed, and four girls, aged 11 to 14, were killed. Their murders at the hands members of the Ku Klux Klan became a history-changing event and a flashpoint for the Civil Rights Movement.
Often lost in our historic memory are the stories of the girls themselves: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair. Spike Lee�s documentary does a fine job recounting the struggles that surrounded the bombing and the impact on the national movement for equality and justice, but perhaps more importantly, it gives us a close look at the girls themselves, based on the recounting of their family members and friends.
By stripping away their iconic status, the film brings us closer to the emotional reality of the bombing and the smaller, everyday fears of growing up black in 1960�s Alabama.
“Akeelah and the Bee”:
Set in South Los Angeles in modern times, “Akeelah and the Bee” tells the story of a middle school student who overcomes tremendous odds to compete in the national spelling bee. Akeelah�s father has been murdered, one of her brothers has joined a gang, and the combination of personal tragedy and widespread poverty and violence have left her doubting herself and her own ability to succeed.
With the support of a teacher who believes in her, Akeelah manages to win a local spelling bee, but soon learns just how much more challenging the competition has become as she advances to higher levels. “Akeelah and the Bee” touches on the issues of race, class, community and confidence that define�but don�t necessarily determine–the paths of so many young Americans.
Akeelah�s successes embody the Dr. King�s dream of self determination, even as the unfair inequities of opportunity she struggles against defy it. The film provides families ample conversation points on the role of poverty, education and equity in contemporary American society.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts about this essay, and about your favorite socially-conscious films, in the comments.
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