1.01.2002
King Week 02
Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection
Screenings
all events are free and open to the public
King Week, January 22-25, 2002
"At the River I Stand"
a special screening followed by a talk with producer/director
Allison Graham
Thursday, January 24th, 7:00 p.m.
Lecture Hall 117, Visual Arts Building, Lamar Dodd School of Art
AT THE RIVER I STAND
is a documentary about the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968. Although
usually remembered as the event which culminated in the assassination of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., the strike is also significant in itself as a watershed
event in the civil rights movement. It was in Memphis that King attempted to
merge civil rights issues with a broader concern for economic rights. This is
a story of opposing forces in American history: organized labor versus municipal
authorities; civil disobedience versus civil law; poverty versus privilege;
black versus white. It is also a story of individual sacrifice and bravery on
the part of the 1300 sanitation workers who stepped off their jobs and into
history. Using archival footage and present day interviews, the film tells the
story of the Memphis movement from the initial strike to its final outcome in
the wake of King's death.
The program contains portions of speeches by Mayor Henry
Loeb, P.J. Ciampa, Maxine Smith, Rev. James Lawson, Jerry Wurf, T.O. Jones,
Rev. Ralph Jackson, Bayard Rustin, Sen. Robert Byrd, Walter Reuthers, President
Lyndon Johnson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It also includes interviews
with Coby Smith, Taylor Rogers, Clinton Burrows, Jesse Jones, Bill Ross, Rev.
Harold Middlebrook, Lewis Donelson, Jerred Blanchard, Bill Lucy, Robert Beasley,
Rev. Billy Kyles, Bob James, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rev. Frank McRae, Rev. James
Netters, and Rev. James Orange.
The documentary was nominated for an Emmy award and a NAACP
Image award. The program is part of the Peabody Awards Collection (Peabody
entry number: 93054 DCT).
ALLISON GRAHAM is a professor of media and communication
studies at The University of Memphis. She co-produced and co-directed
At the River I Stand with colleagues Steven Ross and David Appleby.
She is also the author of Framing the South (The Johns Hopkins
University Press), an insightful examination of the ways race and Southern identity
have been portrayed in film and television since World War II.
Continuous Screenings at the Main Library 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily
Tuesday, January 22
Journeys: Remembering Dr. King
Wednesday, January 23
The White House Tapes: Uncivil Liberties
Thursday, January 24
Memphis Dreams
Friday, January 24
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years.
Episode 6, "Bridge to Freedom: 1965"
More about these programs:
"Remembering Dr. King, " a special episode of "Journeys with Brenda Wood" is a tribute to Atlanta's most powerful and reflective native son - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The show aired on the 30th anniversary of his assassination. The program was filmed primarily in Memphis, Tennessee at the former Lorraine Motel, the site of King's assassination, now the National Civil Rights Museum. It includes interviews with everyone from his children, to the daughter of a Memphis sanitation worker, to Mike Gabriel, a man who reveres Dr. King but believes James Earl Ray did not kill him. "Remembering Dr. King" was produced by WXIA-TV, Atlanta.
Peabody entry number: 98015 DCT. Run time: 58 minutes.
"Uncivil Liberties" is an episode of "The White House Tapes," a series from Channel 4 Television, London. While Johnson was making every effort to pass the civil rights legislation initiated by President Kennedy, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was engaged in a secret campaign to discredit and destroy Martin Luther King, Jr. This program uses telephone calls secretly recorded by the Johnson White House to try to determine whether Johnson had any knowledge of Hoover's vendetta against Dr. King.
Peabody entry number 99082 DCT. Run time: 50 minutes.
"Memphis Dreams" is part of the ABC News Special "The Century." Part 1, "Innocence and Rebellion," focuses on Elvis Presley and the fears of racial "mongrelization" that his music produced in some conservatives. Part 2, "Searching for the Promised Land," looks at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s efforts to help the striking sanitation workers of Memphis, work that, he felt, was recapturing the true spirit of the movement. Reverend Billy Kyles concludes the program with these words: "My witness is that Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't die in some foolish way. He died... gave his life... helping garbage workers."
Peabody entry number 99088 DCT. Run time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.
"Eyes on the Prize" is the first comprehensive history of the people, the stories, the events, and the issues of the 20th century struggle for justice in America. This episode, "Bridge to Freedom: 1965" looks at the 1965 freedom marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, two of which ended unsuccessfully at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Organizers of the marches hoped to create national awareness of Alabama's racist voter registration policies. The program also examines ideological differences which developed between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It includes interviews with James Forman, Joseph Smitherman, Nicholas Katzenbach, Frederick D. Reese, Sheyann Webb, Rachel West Nelson, Jim Clark, C.T. Vivian, John Lewis, James Bevel, Andrew Young, George Wallace, Stokely Carmichael, Burke Marshall, and Coretta Scott King.
This program was originally broadcast by PBS on February 25, 1987. Peabody entry number 87079 DCT. Run time: 60 minutes.
These programs are also available for viewing in the University of Georgia Libraries Media Department.For more information, contact the University of Georgia Libraries Media Department at 583-0212 or Mary Miller, mlmiller@uga.edu
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