Taking a cool drink from a water fountain on a hot summer day or sitting wherever one pleases in a restaurant or a bus don`t seem like remarkable privileges for which anyone should have to fight.
But in the not-so-distant past, such ordinary activities were forbidden to many black Americans and it took a bitter struggle to undo those wrongs.
Not since the Civil War had Americans been so divided as during the civil rights era of the 1960s, when many injustices were finally challenged not only by blacks who were directly affected but by many white supporters who, in taking a stand against racism, faced the scorn of some of their peers.
This volatile period in our history can be reviewed through several video documentaries and dramas.
MPI Home Video`s ”The Fabulous Sixties” series ($19.95 per volume)
traces the major cultural and scientific breakthroughs and the top news stories of each year in that tumultuous decade with footage of historic events. Volumes 4 through 9, covering the years 1963 through 1968, are particularly pertinent to a study of the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.`s marches and demonstrations in the Deep South, the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and King`s assassination. MPI also offers several collections of King`s speeches on video. ”Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream” ($14.95) is a 30-minute tape spotlighting King`s passionate Aug. 28, 1963, address before a massive crowd in Washington, D.C., in which he expressed his fervent desire for national brotherhood and unity regardless of race.
”Speeches of Martin Luther King” (MPI, $19.95) is a 60-minute program including the above-mentioned speech and others. The two-hour ”Martin Luther King Commemorative Collection” (MPI, $29.95) features an anthology of stirring speeches along with tributes from Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy and Bill Cosby.
”King: From Montgomery to Memphis” (Pacific Arts Video, $29.95) is a biographical documentary celebrating King`s dreams and achievements from the Montgomery bus boycott to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, his triumphant address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and his assassination in Memphis.
Respected actor Paul Winfield portrays the slain civil rights leader in the made-for-TV drama ”King” (HBO Video, on two cassettes,$69.95), costarring Cicely Tyson and Cliff De Young.
Tyson stars in the multiple Emmy Award-winning saga ”The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (Prism Entertainment, $14.95), recalling the experiences of a poor black woman from her days as a slave in Louisiana to becoming a 101-year-old civil rights activist.
The acclaimed ”Mississippi Burning” (Orion, $89.95; also available on laserdisc from Image Entertainment, $49.95) stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two very different FBI agents assigned to investigate the
disapperance of three civil rights workers who were campaigning to register black voters in Mississippi.
One agent wants to do everything ”strictly by the book” and gets little or no cooperation from the local ”good ol` boys” who resent the federal government`s intrusion into their cozy, familiar way of life.
In the end, it takes underhanded tactics to reveal the truth about what happened to the civil rights workers-and to see that someone pays for the crime.
Based on true events, the story depicts the hatred of many old-time white Southerners and their refusal to accept their black neighbors as their equals. The above movies and documentaries can be rented or purchased through video dealers. Check public libraries, too.
An even wider variety of black-oriented programs, including many about King and the civil rights movement, is available through a specialized catalog from BlaCast Entertainment, 199-19 Linden Blvd., St. Albans, N.Y. 11412
(718-527-2300).
Co-founder Edna M. Swan said that the company was created in 1987 to address ”the well-informed black consumers who don`t want to watch the exploitation movies such as `Black Godfather.` ”
The company`s catalog includes vintage movie musicals (from the 1930s and `40s) with black casts; music concerts, dance and theatrical performances by black artists; children`s programs featuring favorable black role models, such as Bill Cosby; and documentaries on black history, black athletes and black culture.
