Los Angeles, CA.--- Forty years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain on the balcony of the historic Lorraine Hotel. This past April, the National Civil Rights Museum commemorated the milestone anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination and honored his legacy with a week of activities and a documentary short. The film entitled The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, captures the last days of Dr. King as seen through the eyes of Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the last remaining witness on the balcony and the only man to spend Dr. King’s last hours with him.
The National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) in conjunction with the Hyde Family Foundations completed The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 to recapture and bring the same feeling and dedication to keeping the dream alive felt in Memphis. Filmmakers include Executive Producer Margaret Hyde, Producers Vicki and R. Stephan Mohammed and Director Adam Pertofsky. The film will be released for distribution later this year as a living piece of the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.
As Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, now 74, so eloquently states, “They may have killed the dreamer, but not the dream.” The purpose of the film and the museum’s goal is to emphasize the Civil Rights Movement as having an ongoing relevance, as a beacon of that affected historic change.
Longtime Civil Rights leader Reverend Kyles, chronicles his time with Dr. King leading up to the fateful shot fired at the balcony. The documentary also shows his efforts to gain community support for the striking sanitation workers in 1968, the march and Dr. King’s now iconic “Mountaintop” address. Throughout the film, Kyles reveals stirring details about conversations he had with Dr. King moments before King’s passing.
The 30minute documentary short also includes exclusive, never-before-seen commentary and interviews with Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Civil Rights Leader and former Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Mrs. Maxine Smith, Executive Secretary, NAACP Memphis Branch and Taylor Rogers, one of the original sanitation workers who marched alongside King and Kyles, amongst others. About the National Civil Rights Museum
In 1991, the NCRM opened its doors as the nation’s first comprehensive exhibit chronicling America’s Civil Rights Movement.
With vital support from the City of Memphis, Shelby County and the State of Tennessee, nearly $9 million dollars were raised to create and construct a civil rights center within the historic Lorraine Motel designed to help visitors better understand the history and lessons of the American Civil Rights Movement. In February 2001, the museum broke ground for an $11 million expansion project titled, ‘Exploring the Legacy’ adding 12,800 square feet of exhibition space and connecting the main campus of the Museum to the Young and Morrow building and the Main Street Rooming House where James Earl Ray allegedly fired the fatal shot resulting in the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Hyde Family Foundation donated both buildings to the Museum.
The National Civil Rights Museum was the first institution of its kind and size in the country to chronicle key episodes of the American Civil Rights Movement in exhibit form. Other museums covering civil rights history typically cover a specific episode, segment or person involved in the movement.
Visitors who experience the Museum see the sights, hear the sounds and feel the emotion of a movement that changed the world. For more information, please visit www.civilrightsmuseum.org.
