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Memphis & Martin Luther King - Episode 4

Series leading up to, surrounding and following Martin Luther King's assassination. This episode looks at the aftermath of Dr King's assassination and how it affects Memphis today.

Clive Myrie introduces a 4 part series presenting a unique look at the events leading up to, surrounding and following the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968. This final episode looks at the aftermath of the killing, and what its reverberations mean for Memphis today.

Dr King came to Memphis to support a strike by local sanitation workers, and for the first time those workers and their families tell their own stories, laying bare in often shocking detail the realities of the Civil Rights struggle in the Southern states of the US.

We'll hear first hand of the daily humiliations of the Jim Crow South, of the hope that Dr King brought and of the fall out from his death, the mistakes and the triumphs and what that era means for Memphis today, with testimony from people like:

The sanitation worker beaten daily by police and too scared to go to hospital to have his wounds healed - why did he strike? "Because they wouldn't treat me like a man".

The teacher arrested on a daily basis for attempting to break the colour bar in Memphis restaurants.

The man who at 6 was the first black child in Memphis to attend a white school, the trauma of which has followed him into adult life, and the grandmother who did the same at Memphis State University and whose family were harassed on a daily basis as a result.

The pastor & councilman who was targeted & almost beaten to death by police on a march to support the sanitation workers.

Members of the Memphis Invaders, the radical Black Power group infiltrated by the FBI for their work with Dr King.

The musicians and staff of Stax records who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support Civil Rights and who supplied the soundtrack for the struggle.

This programme was first broadcast in 2018.

57 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Aug 2020 02:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

More episodes

Previous

Memphis & Martin Luther King - Episode 3

Next

The Raw Pearl Bailey

See all episodes from I Have A Dream

Music Played

  • Martin Luther King

    Address To Civil Rights Marchers In Washington, D.C.

  • Furry Lewis

    Casey Jones

  • O.C. Smith

    Long Black Limousine

    • Columbia.

  • Shirley Walton

    Send Peace And Harmony Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

    • Enterprise.

  • Rufus Thomas

    The Memphis Train

    • Stax.

  • The Beatles

    Helter Skelter

    • Apple.

  • Isaac Hayes

    Theme From Shaft

    • Shades Of Soul (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.

  • Parliament

    Chocolate City

    • Casablanca.

  • Rihanna

    American Oxygen

    • Roc Nation.

  • Marvin Gaye

    Abraham, Martin & John

    • The Very Best Of Marvin Gaye.
    • Motown.

  • Booker T. & The M.G.'s

    Melting Pot

Broadcasts

  • Wed 18 Apr 2018 22:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2
  • Sun 23 Aug 2020 02:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2