SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— In the trailer for the documentary “MLK/FBI” a commentator says “He [Martin Luther King Jr.] realized how sick this country was. We were trying to reveal the truth about segregation.”
It’s a documentary that aims to shed light on the U.S. government’s surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We revere activism. But this was during a time of segregation. He was growing up during Jim Crow laws where black people were to be seen and not heard. So he was considered a troublemaker,” said UCSB and Westmont Film Studies Professor Wendy Ely Jackson.
Jackson’s mentor Sam Pollard is the filmmaker behind what many are calling a timely documentary.
“It doesn't just start in the 60s. He was under surveillance from the time that he was at Morehouse College, which is an all men's college in Atlanta, Georgia, where he got his undergraduate degree. So the questions around surveillance that people don't know about, specifically where he was concerned-- as we are very much so now--what things are ethical, what things are taken out of context?” said Wendy Jackson.
Thanks to newly declassified documents much of the FBI intelligence is available to the public.
“Perhaps he [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] could have been a little bit dangerous to the FBI because when he spoke people listened and maybe wanted to act upon it,” said Martin Luther King Committee President Gregory Freeland.
“Violence is self-defeating. He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword” is a quote famously uttered by the late Dr. King.
And Dr. King’s daughter-in-law Leah Weber King agrees.
“Fighting back the same way that our oppressors are fighting us would not get us to where we're trying to go,” said Leah.
She says she is heartbroken to see parallels between the turmoil of the 60’s and today’s political climate.
“I’ve never walked around with rose colored glasses to think that racism and inequality just disappeared after my father law was off the scene. I do think it may have been quieted a bit, but now we have in office many people who now give permission to say the quiet part out loud,” said Leah.
Many are hopeful the documentary will empower viewers to take action.
“People looking at this documentary, you should ask yourself questions. 'What do I find there?' Remembering that all politics is local first, right. We'd like to talk about national politics, but the way you affect your immediate life is voting,” said Wendy Jackson.
Monday morning, the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee is organizing it’s annual “Unity March” up State Street.
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