During the middle weeks of January, as we’ve been considering some of Martin Luther King’s words and the work he did with others in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. While most students had heard some things about Dr. King before, not everyone had had a chance before to listen to his speeches or study the actions he took (nor those that were taken against him.
Reading and listening to his actual words was challenging, though the combination of different sources and experiences seemed to help by giving us a few ways to connect to his work. The dramatization Our Friend Martin provided another accesssible way for us to learn about and THINK ABOUT King’s impact and the issue of race as we follow-up on Black Shirt Day and as we move into February, Black History Month.
Our Friend Martin
After spending time in class sharing some reflections of that program and what it made us think about, I’ve invited students to post some of their reflections as comments here.
When I watched “our friend, Martin,” I felt proud of Martin, and sad at the same time. I felt proud about Martin standing up, and sharing his dreams to all whites and blacks. I felt sad about how Martin was being treated. In the beginning, this story was confusing. I didn’t know what was happening, and didn’t know who Martin, and Miles were. But as I started watching more, I understood more of the story. It made me feel disappointed on how whites treated blacks back then. If Martin didn’t do any protesting, and standing up for blacks, the world might have not changed. After watching everything, I learnt a lot about Martin Luther King Jr, and what happened to him. Martin was really confident in sharing his dreams, and helping the world change. That made me feel surprised. I noticed how Martin went to college at a very young age. I noticed that they had very strict rules between blacks, and whites being separated. When somebody tried to kill Martins family, I felt disappointed of how some people are treating blacks.
-Amy
After watching this program it made me realize Martin Luther King Jr. is important for the black community. If Martin didn’t do anything for black people in the past the present would look different. The program confirmed that Martin is a nice person to all, even mean people. This program also gave me questions. What happened after his death? Did blacks gain their freedom right after his death? The answers might have been in the program but if they were I have forgotten about them. His I have a dream speech influenced me and many other people. I can’t explain how it influenced me though. It is sad Martin died but we all die eventually. I wonder if Martin would be nice to the person that killed him. That’s the end of my response.
After watching Our Friend Martin I thought it was just all fun and all. then when we really got into the program I really noticed what the program was really about and learned a lot about martin luther king and how he really changed the world, Seeing how the world would’ve been without him makes me appreciate him even more for how much he did. And it made me sad when I pretty much saw him die and i started thinking what the world would’ve been like if he lived for longer.
something that makes me feel impressed and making me think about this film is that how martin impacted the world in many different ways without violence, and how little kids were attacked in protest and showing what martin achieved in his life, something that made me think about martin than a different person is he’s courage to do what he thought was right even though he was -put to jail had multiply death threats but he had the desire to let black people have the same equality and respect as anyone in America
We heard his speech.” I have A Dream” and when he was talking, there were many people there. what surprised me is that not only the “black” people were there but so were the whites. the white people also wanted people to be treated fairly even though they there were living better. That really surprised me. The way that this short film showed his death was interesting to me because, there were no words placed in that scene it was just martin opening a door walking out then the screen went black and then we heard a gun shot. One thing i wonder is if the person who shot martin was person he knew?
When I first watch this program I thought it was going to be about all the speech’s that he said. but I was way of the program what bout his life and I learned some new things about martin before I didn’t know that martin like baseball now I know that he likes baseball and that’s just one of the things I learn for this program.
While watching this video, I learnt a lot about Martin, like how he helped black Americans gain their rights and freedom. I found his speech “I have a dream” change a lot of people’s perspective of seeing blacks. He urged many people to not choose violence even if some people weren’t treating them nicely. If Martin didn’t do all the things he’s done for the blacks, the future wouldn’t be the same. I barely knew Martin, I only knew what he’s done for the world and how he changed it. I never knew that he went to college at a young age. It’s very unfortunate that blacks had to go through being mistreated, and no one said anything about it except for Martin. It’s hard to believe that this same situation is still going on right now. If Martin were still alive I wonder how he’ll react when he sees that he somehow changed the world.
I’m glad that you recognise that the issues have not gone away and that we all still have work to do to make our society one in which every person is valued, respected and protected.
While watching Our Friend Martin I learned a lot more about him than I did before. If he didn’t do the things that he did then I don’t know what the world would be like right now. After finishing Our Friend Martin I learned that all those speech’s that he did really made a difference between the whites and the blacks. I was really disappointed on how the whites treated the blacks back then. But with all that Martin did he really made a big impact on the way the whites treat the blacks.
I did not get to see the ending but I thought what I saw it was good the message was great so all around I think it was good.
When I had finished watching “our friend martin” I felt sad and happy at the same time. I felt sad because I saw how black people were treated and they couldn’t even play with there friends. But the movie also made me happy because it showed how hard black people worked to get there rights back and how no matter what they had did to them they still fought.
During and after watching this program, I have learned a lot about more Martin Luther King Jr . His speech “I Had A Dream” has changed many people’s perspectives of seeing blacks. I hope more people will listen or read his speech as is has influenced me as well. He seems to be a very wise guy, considering being poorly mistreated and having many other bad things happen to him and his family but still encouraging others to treat everybody nice, even their enemies. The world and today’s society would be a lot more different if Martin Luther King Jr. hadn’t done those thing for the black people in the past. It is unfortunate the racism is still very bad now in the present. I wonder what Martin would feel if he could see the world today compared to the past, seeing all the changes he had made and would he still be kind to the person who killed him?
I thought this program was really helpful, and it changed my thoughts of some things. one of them was, “why do we need to learn about this every year?”. I know that what Mr. King did was very important but why. After I finished watching this program, it made me realize that if we didn’t learn about this every year, we might forget how important his speech was. People won’t care anymore and go back to treating people with darker skin unfairly. Although I did know why his speech was important, I now know why we are reminded every year. I also like how this film was created because it shows you how important Martin Luther King is and it shows you in a way that is enjoyable to watch.
While I was watching ‘Our Friend, Martin’ I felt 2 kinds of emotions, anger, and happiness. It made me feel angry because the police were killing Blacks, protesting peacefully for freedom, and being killed for it. It made me feel happy though, because of Martin and all of the people who helped with the Civil Rights Act, Blacks and Whites can now sit together, eat together, and be friends with each other no matter what color or race the person is. There are still problems with the blacks and whites getting along but what Martin did had a really big impact on the world and I hope that we can continue to make Martin’s dream come true.