Catch up TV

Episode 04 April 2018

Documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington, a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. \n\nThe film tells the story of how the march for jobs and freedom began, speaking to the people who organised and participated in it. Using rarely seen archive footage the film reveals the background stories surrounding the build up to the march as well as the fierce opposition it faced from the JFK administration, J Edgar Hoover's FBI and widespread claims that it would incite racial violence, chaos and disturbance. The film follows the unfolding drama as the march reaches its ultimate triumphs, gaining acceptance from the state, successfully raising funds and in the end, organised and executed peacefully - and creating a landmark moment in the struggle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States.\n\nIncluding interviews with some of the key actors: members of the inner circles of the core organizational groups such as Jack O'Dell, Clarence B Jones, Julian Bond and Andrew Young; Hollywood supporters and civil rights campaigners including Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier; performing artists at the march such as Joan Baez and Peter Yarrow; JFK administration official, Harris Wofford; the CBS Broadcaster who reported from the march, Roger Mudd; Clayborne Carson, the founding director of Stanford's Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute and a participant in the march; as well as those who witnessed the march on TV and were influenced by it, such as Oprah Winfrey, and most of all, the remembrances of the ordinary citizens who joined some 250,000 Americans at the capital on that momentous day.

Source: BBC 4