Historical overview of the struggle for racial equality in America. Focuses on the extraordinary life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. using rare and largely unseen film footage and photographs.

Selection of documentaries, interviews, and other archival footage illustrating African American history.

This story begins on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It comes to a bloody end almost five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. In the years since those events unfolded, the man at the center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic figure, a minister whose oratory is etched into the minds of millions of Americans,...

To mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 2005, PBS NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown speaks with civil rights author Nick Kotz and Roger Wilkins, history professor at George Mason University.

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 sparked riots in predominantly African-American neighborhoods throughout the country. On the evening of the assassination, Senator Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech asking for calm.

The day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. During the speech he noted that while he faced continued death threats, he believed that the civil rights movement would live on without him.

This classic episode of Press Conference USA - a panel discussion in which well-known correspondents question a leading personality in the news - features the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Robert Lodge is moderator.

Documents the life of civil rights visionary Dr. Martin Luther King and explores the relevance of his message in today's world.

The assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, ignited a series of riots and protests throughout the nation. That evening, Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech from a street corner in Indianapolis urging peace and calmness. On April 5 President Lyndon B. Johnson broadcast a radio address that declared April 7 a national day of mourning and called for an emergency meeting of Congress to discuss strategies...

Paying lip service to Dr. King's message is one thing, creating a national holiday is quite another. This is the story of how Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, birthday became a national holiday-of the unrelenting drive of his widow, Coretta Scott King, to carry on his work; of politicians (especially Representative John Conyers, Jr.) determined to memorialize Dr. King and offer hope as the alternative to black rage at his assassination; of the ultimately...