Skip to content
Task

Tasks: MLK/FBI

Write:

Write a text where you answer the following two questions:

  1. What did you learn from watching the documentary?

  2. What did you find most interesting?

The text should be between 450 and 700 words.

Talk:

Work in a group and study the quotations by Martin Luther King Jr.

  1. Study each quotation and explain what he is saying.

  2. What do these quotations tell us about what Martin Luther King Jr. believed in?

Quotations by Martin Luther King Jr.

  • Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

  • I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

  • Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.

  • Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

  • It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace.

  • We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Discuss:

  1. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is tasked to protect and defend against intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce criminal laws, and to provide criminal justice services. What do you think it was like for the activists in the civil rights movement to have this powerful law enforcement organisation working against them?

  2. At the time, the FBI had material that would discredit Martin Luther King Jr. as 'the moral leader' of the United States. However, they did not find anyone willing to make the allegations public. Would that be different today?

  3. Do you think the allegations mentioned in the documentary should make us revise our view of Martin Luther King Jr. and his importance as a leader?

  4. Can the authorities guarantee citizens civil liberty while they are at the same time actively working to prevent those citizens from changing society? Is part of our rights as citizens the right to change society?

Present:

Choose one of the following civil rights leaders or activists. Learn more about this person and how they helped change the United States. As a class, choose a suitable presentation format (oral presentations, wall posters, written reports, audio recordings, dramatisations ...).

  • Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968)

  • John Lewis (1940–2020)

  • Rosa Parks (1913–2005)

  • Jesse Jackson (1941–)

  • Dorothy Height (1912–2010)

  • Malcolm X (1925–1965)

  • Roy Wilkins (1901–1981)

  • Septima Poinsette Clark (1898–1987)

  • Ella Baker (1903–1986)

Analyse:

Work with a partner. Discuss and write shared answers to the questions.

  1. How is the story told in the documentary (is it through interviews, documentary footage, music..?)

  2. What devices were used in the documentary to create interest and suspense?

  3. What is the message of the documentary?

  4. Does the documentary seem trustworthy? Why / why not?

Related content

Subject material
MLK/FBI

Film about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he was treated by the FBI and the US government.