Films that Honor Martin Luther King

Learn about the films that honor the memory of Martin Luther King. A cinematic journey through the history of the fight for civil rights.

This inspirational list of movies delves deep into the American Baptist minister and activist's life and his overall influence. MLK became the most visible spokesperson and leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

1. Boycott (2001)

This american made-for-television biographical drama film directed by Clark Johnson, starred Jeffrey Wright as Martin Luther King. Boycott tells the story of the Montgomery bus boycott. The political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.

Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person. In 1956 the United States Supreme Court declared that the Alabama and Montgomery laws (Jim Crow laws) that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

2. King In The Wilderness (2018)

This documentary includes some never-before-seen footage of interviews with some of those closest to MLK alongside historical archives during a period of his life.

Events in King's life and the civil rights movement such as the Chicago Freedom Movement, the James Meredith march, the anti-Vietnam War protests and King's "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech, the 1967 riots, preparation for the Poor People's Campaign, the Memphis sanitation strike and much more are explored in depth by the film, now available on HBO Max.

3. King (1970)

This earlier documentary only uses original newsreel and other primary material, unvarnished and unretouched, and covers the period from the Montgomery bus boycott through his assassination.

For Sidney Lumet who directed this film and many other classics like "12 Angry Man", King stands alone as the only documentary he ever made. Given Lumet's prior successes he was able to cast famous actors to narrate over the found footage, like Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman and more...

4. MLK/FBI (2020)

The film is the first to explore the investigation and harassment of Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, through newly declassified documents. Documents that attempted to discredit MLK by collecting recordings and images of his private sexual life with women other than his wife. This is to denigrate his status within the civil rights movement for black people in the United States, which was gaining momentum.

“I’m not saying Martin was a saint,” Coretta Scott King his wife, recalled the year before she died. “Nobody is perfect. But as far as I’m concerned, our marriage was a very good marriage, and it was like that all the way to the end.”

5. Selma (2014)

And last but not least: Selma which probably garnered more widespread acclaim than all the other films on this list combined.

This dramatized film explores many incidents like the time that Annie Lee Cooper attempted to register to vote in Selma, Alabama, but was prevented by the white registrar or the time four black girls were killed by a bomb set by the Ku Klux Klan.

Thanks to her direction work in Selma, Ava DuVernay became the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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