Jan 21, 2008 6:02 pm US/Central
PBS Film Shows Dr. King/Sgt. Shriver Connection
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
Chicago filmmaker Bruce Orenstein shows how an untold chapter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. unfolded in Chicago with the help of Sargeant Shriver.
CBS
A seldom told chapter in Dr. King's battle for civil rights unfolded in Chicago. That chapter will play before a national audience on PBS in a documentary examining the life of Sargeant Shriver Monday evening. CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports on the events that many believe rescued King from a possible lynching.
In the fall of 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on trumped up traffic charges and sentenced to four months hard labor in Georgia.
"They came to the cell and they shined the light in his face and he didn't know where he was going," said the late Coretta Scott King in one of her last interviews, recalling her husband's frightening ordeal.
"They handcuffed him and put chains around his legs and put a big dog with him and put him in the back of the car," she said. "For all they knew, they were taking him out someplace to lynch him."
Shriver felt his party should reach out to King.
In a documentary premiering on PBS Monday night, Chicago filmmaker Bruce Orenstein chronicles how a phone call to Mrs. King from Democratic presidential candidate John Kennedy became front page news in the black press and eventually helped lead to King's release.
"The reaction within the black community across the country overwhelmingly moves the vote toward Kennedy," said Orenstein.
The politically risky call that could have alienated white southern voters was instigated just after Chicago's historic televised debates by Sargeant Shriver, Kennedy's brother-in-law and civil rights adviser.
"Shriver is rushing to reach Kennedy to get him to make this call and it's taking place here in Chicago," Orenstein said.
It's only one chapter in the life of Shriver that's chronicled in the film "American Idealist."
"Very bad housing, very bad education, that kind of poverty does not need to exist in the United States any longer," Shriver said in the film.
The work focuses on the many achievements of Shriver – a man who married into the shadow of the Kennedy political dynasty – but went on to create the Peace Corps, Head Start and legal services for the poor.
"Arguably Shriver impacted more Americans than most any president in the second half of the 20th Century," Orenstein said.
"For the first time in the history of this country, people actually have a place and a way to express themselves," Shriver said.
"Shriver is like a forgotten American hero," Orenstein said.
Shriver ran the Kennedy-owned Merchandise Mart, challenged local Catholic organizations to integrate, and was touted as a candidate for Illinois governor.
The film was commissioned by his children, including California First Lady Maria Shriver. At 92, he continues to live in Maryland, but suffers from Alzheimer's.
cbs2chicago.com's Most Popular Pages
Slideshow: The Rise Of Barack Obama
Slideshow: 90s TV Stars Then And Now
Slideshow: World's Most Bizarre Deaths Slideshow: In To Be Out: Gay Celebrities
Slideshow: Did You Know? Stars From Chicago!
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
