http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yPiUqPkG40

Hear David Briddell describe what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  was like in School.  A friend and classmate, Briddell describes the young MLK’s study habits and how, even then, he seem to possess a faint vision of the man he would become.

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What was Martin Luther King, Jr. like in School? appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESvCXG1taM

On March 7, 1965, a group of around 600 marchers left Selma, Alabama, on a march to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery, as part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. Shortly after leaving Selma, the unarmed marchers were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers with tear gas and billy clubs. The day became known as “Bloody Sunday”. In this video, Selma resident and civil rights activist Betty Miles recalls how she and other activists prepared for the march, as well as what happened on Bloody Sunday.

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Betty Miles Remembers Bloody Sunday In Selma appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE8zcJnncV8

The Orangeburg massacre took place on February 8, 1968, when a group of about 150 protestors from South Carolina State University had gathered to protest racial segregation at the local bowling alley. South Carolina Highway Patrol Officers responded to the scene and opened fire on protestors, killing three and wounding another twenty-eight. The three protestors who passed were Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith and Delano Middleton. The nine officers brought up on charges following the shooting were all acquitted. In this video, survivors of the Orangeburg Massacre describe the incident.

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Survivors Recall The Orangeburg Massacre appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpjBWw5w444

Mahatma Gandhi lead the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India by employing techniques of nonviolent civil disobedience. His methods were eventually successful, and they went on to inspire civil rights movements across the world. In his first television interview on April 30, 1931, Gandhi spoke with Fox Movietone News about his efforts to achieve independence for India, saying “I am an optimist”. Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948. Prior to his assassination, there had been five other unsuccessful attempts on his life.

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Mahatma Gandhi’s First Television Interview appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvv2f6zsJEs

Reverend Thomas Lane Butts discusses meeting Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his participation in the march on Selma.

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Revered Thomas Lane Butts On The Selma March appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMhrBKwtbVs

Former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford shares his favorite memory of meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and remembers discussing the inevitable assassination of such a prominent civil rights leader with his wife, Coretta Scott King. Wofford then explains what MLK Day means to him and how he thinks the holiday should celebrate King’s goals of equality. He also recalls the fight it took to create the holiday in the first place, though it had support from many sides. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that all 50 states celebrated MLK Day. The day was singed into law as a Federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was first celebrated in 1986 after Wofford and other politicians voiced their support.

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‘A Day When We Try to Fulfill the Goals MLK Gave His Life For’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaYPvqYD-UQ

Actress Carmen Ejogo plays Coretta Scott King in the 2014 movie “Selma”, which is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. Ejogo had previously played Coretta Scott King in the HBO production “Boycott”, and in this video she discusses portraying Scott King at different points in her life. Of the difference between “Boycott” and “Selma”, Ejogo says: “By this point, they’ve really been steeped and very much – they’re deep in the trenches at this point. And I think the threat of violence and death as being something that is a potential on their horizons I think is very much more palpable, and as a result there’s just much more of a burden that I think is very evident in the way that she conducts herself. And so it’s been quite an interesting thing to have played her at a much fresher, more sort of optimistic stage in her life and then to sort of move ten years on and to have all of that experience, all of that sort of that knowledge and research I had from playing her the first time and then adding to that with something that’s so much weightier.”

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Carmen Ejogo On Playing Coretta Scott King appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtBnXJEgAP4

On April 4, 1968, at the age of 39, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. In this video, his friend, advisor and draft speechwriter Dr. Clarence B. Jones recalls hearing the news of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death and speaks about his initial thoughts and reactions. On first getting word of the assassination he says: “Within the first fifteen seconds of the news, the first thing that came across my mind were exactly these words: They finally got him.” Of how he felt in the days after, Jones says: “It was hard to cope. Or to give you some magnitude how hard to cope it was, I had this discussion with myself and with a couple of friends. It started out with ‘I don’t know that I can continue to live in this country.’ ‘Well, where are you gonna go?’ ‘I don’t know where I’m going to go, but I don’t know that I can continue to live in this country.” ‘Why?’ ‘Because I can’t… A country that would do this was just more than I could bear’. And I was really fearful, quite frankly”.

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Dr. Clarence B. Jones Remembers MLK’s Assassination appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uXd4RUFwoY

Former mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry explains why the struggle for civil rights is not over and the power of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.

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Marion Barry: ‘The Struggle Is Not Over’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGpjLX1BeHM

Colleagues such as Mary Burton of Archbishop Desmond Tutu discuss how he got involved with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) assembled in South Africa after the end of apartheid. The TRC reviewed thousands of statements from witnesses and victims of human rights violations during the apartheid as a method of catharsis. TRC commissioners describe Tutu’s mission to hear the “stories of the little people,” whose sufferings had been previously ignored and how within the second day, he broke down from all the deeply heartbreaking stories he heard. But a colleague says that Tutu recovered and said, “‘This shouldn’t be about me. This should be about the victims…I can learn to control my emotions.’ There after, you would see him biting his hand when he was getting emotional to ensure the focus remained on the victims.” The TRC was set up in 1995 and the hearings began in 1996.

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Desmond Tutu’s Key Role in the Truth & Reconciliation Commission appeared first on Witnify.