Martin Luther King Murder: Smithsonian Channel Uncovers Film From Assassination

NEW YORK — Some forward-looking college professors enabled television's Smithsonian Channel to offer a look at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. from the time in which it occurred.

The network said Wednesday it will air a documentary in February culled primarily from local news footage in Memphis, Tenn., where the civil rights leader was murdered on April 4, 1968. Most of the footage hasn't been seen on television since it originally aired.

Many such moments are lost since local television stations usually taped over old broadcasts or threw away film reels, said David Royle, executive producer at the Smithsonian Channel. But some University of Memphis professors sensed in March 1968 that civil rights history was happening with a strike of local sanitation workers, the event that drew King to Memphis, and they collected footage of the events through King's murder and its aftermath.

"What they were doing was absolutely visionary – and very unusual," Royle said.

It enabled the production of a documentary with a vivid, "you-are-there" feel and the uncovering of some fascinating moments.

Royle said he was drawn, for instance, to coverage of King's famed "mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple the night before the assassination. Cameras followed King after the speech to where he slumped in a chair, and viewers could sense the man's fragility.

The producer said he recognized how the existence of such film was unusual when he researched an older documentary on Sam Ervin, the North Carolina senator who chaired the Watergate investigative committee in the 1970s. Royle said he traveled across North Carolina and could find only a minute and a half of tape of Ervin in his home state.

Another stroke of luck for Tom Jennings, who produced "MLK: The Assassination Tapes," was finding Vince Hughes, who was a 20-year-old Memphis police dispatcher on his second day of work when King was killed. Hughes kept audiotapes of police calls on that day and crime scene photos from where King was shot, and the material was made available for the film.

Jennings also went to radio station WDIA to collect interviews from black Memphis residents at the time. The white-owned and operated TV stations at the time had little such material, Royle said.

"This (documentary) plunges you into the immediacy of the period and allows you to absorb it the way people at the time absorbed it," Royle said. "There's something that's electric about that. It gets you to sit up and pay attention."

Smithsonian plans to air the special on Feb. 12.

Comments

[dbrett480]

09:29 PM on 12/11/2011

Thanks to the dispatcher and news station employees for preserving this historical record.

[AllBlackWoman]

07:37 PM on 12/10/2011

Whose responsible for the production of this documentary, did I miss that? After all this time more material just suddenly becomes available and never shown before, hmmmm! All of our great leaders were imprisoned and/or assassinated and when assassination is to the benefit of a govt. material always goes *puff missing, to cover up malice and intent. Then all the experts come together to marvel at his greatness and attempt to figure out what and who was behind is assassination when it was a clear message from the then white dominated american govt. that feared the uprisal of black people, that when and where we rise above what is considered to be an acceptable level anything can and will be done to bring us back down to our "place". That level is the realisation of our fundamental God given right to stand as equal to all men.

Long live the legacy of MLK and other black leaders a like and may God see fit to send us more and more and more and more of such men!

[BlairCase]

05:24 PM on 12/10/2011

King made it impossible for whites to believe in the "separate but equal" mythology.

[MA2AW]

10:23 PM on 12/13/2011

No, not really. You may want to read more.

[ms.understood]

01:58 PM on 12/09/2011

i hate that he lost his life fighting for a great cause, but this man wasn't the ONLY one nor was he all that great. i think that people should be focusing on giving other people who fought for civil rights their just due instead of spending every resource on this one individual.

[thatbrothasmoove6]

09:51 PM on 12/09/2011

"nor was he all that great". That's patently absurd. He was the foremost thinker, writer and actor of the Civil Rights era. Of course, there were many, many others who were important and who made great sacrifices. Without a doubt, however, MLK was that movement's leader, and as you noted, made the greatest possible sacrifice for that movement.

[ms.understood]

11:34 PM on 12/09/2011

that's YOUR opinion of this man, not mine. so to YOU he was all those things, which doesn't make it wrong, it's just not what i believe. and furthermore, he plagerized many of his speeches from the very religious and political leaders that many refuse to acknowledge. IMO, not all that great!

[MA2AW]

10:26 PM on 12/13/2011

He didn't even write the I Have a Dream by himself.... He was the only one that had the guts to stand in the cross hairs and give his speaches, that were writen by several other people.

[JohnnyAce Okeke]

12:52 PM on 12/09/2011

No one ever talks about how MLK changed his views right before he died. {{-_-}}

[RiceStarz]

02:36 PM on 12/09/2011

He didn't change his views, he broadened them as did Malcolm X. This is the reason they were taken out. They began to include poor whites in their fight for civil rights, and as true today as it was then, the 1% and those who aspire to be the elites, like to keep the poor whites dumb and dumber. The gig is up now though, despite faux news and the like. Everyone in the world knows that all men and women are created equal- it is just opportunity and oppression which keeps people back- for the most part anyway. Race, creed, colour, gender nor sexual preference makes any one greater or lesser than another.

[JohnnyAce Okeke]

01:37 PM on 12/10/2011

That's not what happened.

MLK decided that integration into white society was NOT the answer. Economic empowerment and business ownership for Blacks was (just like Malcolm and Elijah preached). And the 1% couldn't handle the competition so they took Martin out. {{-_-}}

[madrediterra]

10:53 AM on 12/09/2011

When MLK was alive I don't remember wondering which party he belonged to or how he voted. He was one of a kind, speaking truth to power and the masses. The great difference was that the masses listened. Don't try to package him by the standards of today's simplistic newswriting. If you heard the man and had any intelligence, you were moved. Between 63 and 68 all major civil rights proponents were killed. Coincidence?

[RiceStarz]

02:37 PM on 12/09/2011

No coincidence. They were killed because poor whites began to listen and realize that they were as oppressed as people of colour.

[madrediterra]

07:07 PM on 12/09/2011

Even more than poor whites, once Malcolm X rejected racism society as a whole began to examine how "free" they were and discovered that inequality showed itself everywhere.

[MA2AW]

10:32 PM on 12/13/2011

By their own people you might want to add. Watch the shooting of MLK in slow motion. Today you can do it by frames. You might be surprised at what you see. Don't watch MLK is the hint.

[BLACKMANVISION]

09:27 AM on 12/09/2011

I watched Dick Gregory speech on the death of Martin Luther King and I am still stung at the lies being told. It may not have been a Government, but a close associate who killed that great man.

[Terry Keith]

07:16 PM on 12/09/2011

J. Edgar Hoover; the cross dresser.

[Vanderbil Covington]

06:57 AM on 12/09/2011

Although Martin Luther King was a peaceful visionary, his inspiring oratories were like a two edged sword. He wielded this mighty sword to fight against injustices done to his people, fatally wounding the hooded dragons of oppression. His words awakened America to include all men as equals in a society built on the cruelty of slavery. He fought to not only seek peaceful resolution to White bigotry, but also against Black revolutionist who accused him of weakness. Cut down in his youth by hate only martyred his vision, openning iron clad doors to opportunity. Indeed his greatness will be forever inscribed in stone for future posterity

[Kev Bat]

05:37 AM on 12/09/2011

He was feared because his words had power to stir feelings of freedom and equality . Mr King lived to help those who had others had forgot . His words were of peaceful solutions through peaceful protest while demanding civil rights for all people . I'm sure the people who founded our county would be proud of him .

[Vanderbil Covington]

06:21 AM on 12/09/2011

Here, here!

[JackVandusen]

07:54 PM on 12/09/2011

Beautifully said.
Thanks.

[pslcitizen]

04:54 AM on 12/09/2011

Too bad so many people forget the messages that MLK preached...

[clance3]

10:39 PM on 12/11/2011

the good thing is, people can always go back to listen to them and reassess.

[Kev Bat]

05:21 AM on 12/09/2011

Admitting you have no sense of history is not easy to do . We can't wait for you .

[Vanderbil Covington]

07:13 AM on 12/09/2011

There have been many Blacks history has supressed or forgotten because Whites wanted to keep all noble deeds to themselves. There are still many that want any notice of Black people to be relegated to crime and lawbreakers while ignoring the many, many positive contributions made by them throughout history. Indeed, Martin Luther King IS worthy of a national holiday -- even if it is elective

[Kev Bat]

05:23 AM on 12/09/2011

Cannot comprehend history ?Go back to tweeting about your poor grades in school .

[madrediterra]

10:39 AM on 12/09/2011

Everyone I know cares. Our civil rights leaders were selfless defenders of millions of powerless people who did not have a shot at equality. Moving them to stand up and say 'no more' was a monumental task that still leaves me awestruck.

[Jean Stallworth]

01:17 AM on 12/09/2011

this has always been around some one just wanted the real truth to be seen what did we march for what did we go to jail for if not for the color of our skin will it help people to look closer at the treatment of us will it take the ever lasting wrong and make it right.I dont think so.

how do we know we will see the whole thing or will they cut it up like every truth they dont want us to see I still want to see in our lybrary some thing about slavory we have no truth about it like the jewish .you see the hair the teeth their bodies stacked up but where is the slave ships the chains the dead bodies we know about.why wont any of you influentail blacks open our own library so our young wont forget about what we went through.these black children need to know how bad it really was is maybe just maybe they will start to gain some pride in them selves

Maybe they will pull up thier pants and walk upright tuck in thier shirts.I hope this new peice of footage will help some one. open our own library show the truth what happen.nothing against the jewish people we need for our story to be seen told our children wake up take a good look at your self.your grand parents great grans fought so you can walk down the street

[Vanderbil Covington]

07:22 AM on 12/09/2011

Hung-up on semantics, you ignore the message.

[MA2AW]

10:38 PM on 12/13/2011

There are alot of Theys. Who is they, and where do they live or work? Good luck with the Library.

[Skimsoco76]

01:05 AM on 12/09/2011

I'm thinking most of you guys like me came here to see the footage. So thank you again HP for nothing.

[Joel Mendez]

01:08 PM on 12/09/2011

gonna hafta agree with you there.

[bmitche]

12:47 AM on 12/09/2011

It will be an interesting part of history. MLK was a man of honor who helped not only his race, he helped others as well.