Face to Face (1959)

Martin Luther King (3x2)

: 29, 1961

Filmed two years before Martin Luther King made his famous "I have a dream" speech, this interview explores some of the earliest experiences that were to shape King's political consciousness. The interview teases out the realities of segregation through King's memories of not being allowed to use the swimming pool, approach the lunch counter in local stores to buy a hamburger, or go to a 'white' high school. But in 1955, the refusal by Rosa Parks to give up her bus seat to a white man catapulted 26-year-old King's name to national status when he emerged as a leader of a 381-day boycott of Montgomery's buses. Over the course of the interview, King's understated and softly spoken style of rhetoric exploits the Face to Face format to its fullest potential, creating a spellbinding television experience.