Throughout history, great leaders have inspired
people to fight for their freedom.
Two events stand out,
reflecting the contrasting fortunes of two great leaders.
The assassination of Martin Luther King,
and the release of Nelson Mandela.
Extraordinary moments separated by just twenty-two years.
This is a dramatised version of events,
based on the accounts of people who witnessed two days that shook the world.
It is April the third, nineteen sixty eight.
In Vietnam, war is reaching its height.
In prague, soviet tanks have taken over the city.
In paris, tensions are rising amongst student protestors.
And in Atlanta, Georgia, Reverend Martin Luther King,
is about to set off on the last campaign of his life...
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Nobel peace prize winner,
and the world's most famous civil rights leader,
is on his way to Memphis in Tennessee.
James Earl Ray, a drifter, and life long petty criminal on the run from the police,
is also making his way to Memphis.
Within the next twenty four hours,
these two men's lives will collide with one act of violence,
that will bring America to the brink of self destruction.
But King can't board yet.
A threat on his life means that he is forced to wait on the tarmac
while his plane is searched.
Through his use of non-violent protest against racism, poverty and war,
King has become an icon to millions around the globe,
but in challenging American society, he is seen by many,
including the government, as an enemy of the state.
Today he is leaving his home town of Atlanta,
to return to Memphis, the scene of his latest crisis.
Memphis is a clean, progressive looking city of six hundred thousand.
Geographically, it is in Tennessee, but its attitudes are deep south.
About two hundred thousand of its residents are Negroes.
On February twelfth... fades out to background noise.
Since the abolition of slavery in 1865,
black Americans have had to fight for racial equality, and the right to vote.
Martin Luther King has been at the forefront of this
struggle for the last thirteen years.
Through his policy on non-violent action,
he forced the government to outlaw segregation,
and led two hundred and fifty thousand people to march on Washington.
Which put civil rights firmly on the presidential agenda.
But despite these, and other successes,
many parts of America are still racially divided.
In Memphis, thirteen hundred black sanitation workers have been on strike
for two months in protest of their treatment by the city authorities.
Last week, Martin Luther King came to Memphis to add his weight,
and lead a march in support of the strike.
But his peaceful protest was hijacked by disenchanted locals,
who believed in direct violent action...
The notoriously brutal city police retaliated,
injuring sixty two people, and shooting at least one person dead.
Well, I only pray for my life, I knew the store was going,
and that didn't concern me at all,
but I just prayed to God to spare my daughter and I.
That we'd get out of there alive, because we had no way to get out, er,
and if they had opened that door, I'm sure they would have destroyed us.
They were savage, they were just it was unbelievable"
But there was no control, I mean, nobody could control them,
the leaders couldn't control them, they were like Zulus.
The city authorities,
fearing more violence, have banned all future marches,
and brought in the army to police the black areas of town.
Dr King, we're ready for you now...
This crisis has left King's reputation as a leader of
non-violent protests, in tatters.
Now, one week later, he is returning to Memphis,
hoping to defend his philosophy by attempting
to stage another march next week.
But the atmosphere in Memphis is now so volatile,
that King is risking everything, including his life.
At five o'clock the next morning,
having spent the entire night working in his room in the Lorraine Motel,
Martin Luther King's colleagues set off to court, to fight the injunction.
While he starts his final day,
by going to bed, and getting some much needed rest.
As King sleeps, James Earl Ray arrives in town.
He stops on South Main Street, over the road from the Lorraine Motel.
A climate that tends towards approval and encouragement of violence,
has been created by white terrorism, unquote...
Ray, aged forty, has been a loner all his life.
He was drafted into the army, shortly after World War II,
but while serving in Germany, was jailed for drunkenness.
Since then, he's been in and out ofjail for offences ranging
from fraud to armed robbery.
Last year, he escaped from Missouri State prison,
where he was serving a twenty year sentence.
He heads straight to the boarding house at four-two-two and a half South Main Street.
Sir - can I help you?
It's nothing out of the ordinary, home to mainly drunks and down and outs...
I'd like to rent a room...
Yes, sure, come right this way...
But for Ray, it's all he'll need for the job he has to do.
Yeah, this is good, I'll take it.
Ok, Just eight-fifty per week...
From the moment he arrives,
he unwittingly starts leaving a trail of clues,
and attracting the attention of people all over Memphis.
I'll need your name...
Er... it's John Willy...
Bessy Brewer, who runs the boarding house, is the first person to notice him.
Unlike any of the other residents, he is dressed in a suit,
and she's also surprised that he pays for his room
from a roll of twenty dollar bills.
At eleven a.m., King wakes up for his final day.
While James Earl Ray settles into his room to figure out a plan.
From this morning's local newspaper, Ray knows that King is staying over the road.
But his bedroom window doesn't afford the best view of the Lorraine Motel,
so he goes looking for a better vantage point.
The bathroom at the end of the corridor looks directly over the road,
at the court yard rooms of the Lorraine.
It seems to be the perfect place from which to monitor King's movements...
Shortly after King wakes up,
Ralph Abernathy arrives to continue to discuss ways
of raising more support for the planned march.
...I'm just gonna hold onto this...
Now that he has found his perfect vantage point,
Ray heads off down Main Street to purchase a pair of binoculars.
The second eye witness is Ralph Carpenter,
who runs the York Arms Company at 162 South Main Street.
Now here is a fine pair...
Let's see, I'll take these...
Forty thirty-five...
He recalls a surly, well-dressed man driving a white sixty-six Mustang,
paying with a stash of twenty dollar bills.
Later in the day, this pair of binoculars will be traced to this store,
and Carpenter's description will lead the police to James Earl Ray.
At one p.m. King still hasn't heard from his colleagues at the court house,
whether they have a go ahead for Monday's march.
Having finished his meeting with Ralph Abernathy,
he decides to use this rare opportunity to get some much needed rest...
James Earl Ray heads back to the boarding house with everything he needs.
To this day, the motives to what Ray is about to do, remain unclear.
When he is finally arrested,
he will plead guilty in the face of overwhelming incriminating evidence.
But as soon as he is sentenced, he will recant his confession,
and will protest his innocence for the remainder of his life.
At four o'clock Lorraine Bailey,
the motel's owner, puts an urgent call through to Dr King...
Dr King, Andrew Young's on the phone for you.
Thank you...
His colleague, Andrew Young, is calling from the courthouse,
with the news that they have won their battle to overturn the city's injunction.
The march can go ahead as long as it is peaceful.
This is the news that they have all been waiting for.
I'm going out to get some food, okay, I'll talk to you later, someone, er,
someone's at the door. Okay, bye.
Shortly after four,
Abernathy returns with a clean shirt for King to wear to dinner...
That's a fresh shirt - thank you!
But we got good news, man, we got it...
King tells him the good news,
and they excitedly begin to discuss ideas for the march.
Across the street, James Earl Ray unpacks what he needs,
and settles down for what he thinks will be a long wait,
as King shows no signs of leaving his room...
You hungry? Yeah I'm very hungry...
Have some chips, have some chips...
I'm glad this day is over...
Relieved that they've won their first battle,
King and Abernathy take the time to relax...
The fears and threats that have hung over them are forgotten...
All Ray needs now to complete his job, is for King to step outside.
Nobody knows if he is working by himself, or as many people will come to believe,
for others, as part of a plot to kill King.
At five o'clock Billy Kyles arrives at the Lorraine.
For Ray, this is the first indication that King may be about to emerge.
King is due at Kyle's house for dinner at six,
and he has arrived early to make sure that everyone leaves on time.
We got good news, we got good news, ...oh, we got it, we got the march
Ray's got it, that is good news yeah,
we've been working hard here... that is good news... phew, alright,
let's go get something to eat... my house...
Yeah, throw it all out and everything, get it all done.
...we're ready for you...
Okay, I'll grab my jacket, and then I'll be ready to go...
At five forty-five, Ralph Abernathy decides to freshen up before dinner.
For the first time today,
King steps outside his room for some fresh air while he waits for Abernathy.
As King emerges from his room, he is greeted by Jessie Jackson,
who has arrived to join them for dinner.
You're not dressed for dinner...
Yeah, I'm...
Don't you have a suit or something?
What, what's wrong with this? I got an appetite...
You're not coming by my house... forget it...
Two hundred and five feet and three inches away,
Ray tries to line up his target...
But in order to get a better angle, he has to climb into the bath.
Hey man, how much time do you need?
His boarding house neighbour, Willy Emshots,
is trying to get into the bathroom.
Who is that in there?
Ah, its that new guy in five, I've been trying to get in there...
Later tonight, Jessie Jackson describes the last few minutes of
King's life to a news team...
Reverend Billy Kyles had gone to his home,
er Reverend Kyles had just come out, and had started down the steps.
Er, Mr Dan Bratshuwith from Chicago, who plays for the "red basket band",
a band we have in one of our projects in Chicago,
and I said, Dr King, er Ben Bratshuwith he said yes Ben Bratshuwith he said,
I want you to sing that song for me tonight,
I want you to do precious Lord, I want you to do it real pretty for me...
So Ben said, okay, Dr King, and so I said Doctor, you ready to go,
he said, um, yes, Jessie and said let's get ready to go right now...
I said Dr King - that was it...
At exactly six-oh-one,
a single shot hit King in the right hand side of his face,
severs his spinal cord, and lodges in his left shoulder blade.
But he's still alive.
That sounded like a shot!
As Ray leaves, he is spotted by another key witness, Willy Emshots.
Yeah, that was a shot...
Guests from adjacent rooms start to gather around King's body...
Help, somebody call somebody...
police officers stationed over the road are the first on the scene,
and head off in the direction of the shot.
Somebody call somebody...
Realising that police are now all around him,
Ray throws the weapon and his belongings in a nearby doorway,
to avoid getting caught red-handed.
Billy Kyles goes inside to call an ambulance,
but he can't get to the operator,
because down below Lorraine Bailey, the motel's owner,
has run into the car park to investigate what she believes to be a car crash.
It immediately becomes clear to her that Martin Luther King has been shot.
The shock causes her to have a stroke,
and within two hours Lorraine Bailey will have a brain haemorrhage and die.
At six fifteen, fourteen minutes after King was shot,
an ambulance arrives to rush him twenty blocks across town
to St Joseph's Hospital.
The shooting of one of the greatest leaders in American history,
is already sending shockwaves around the world.
As a crowd gathers outside,
doctors in the ER perform emergency surgery to close
the wound and remove the bullet.
They unsuccessfully try to revive him for forty-five minutes.
At five past seven, they officially pronounce King dead...
At seven ten this evening, Martin Luther King was shot in Tennessee.
Martin Luther King twenty minutes ago died.
America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight
of Dr Martin Luther King.
I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr King,
who lived by non-violence...
Memphis is a confused and shocked city tonight,
no one can believe what has happened.
The mayor of Memphis,
Henry Lowerb fears that rumours of a conspiracy
to assassinate King will trigger civil unrest.
He declares a state of emergency, with a twenty-four hour curfew,
and calls in eleven thousand state troopers to secure the city.
One hundred and fifty police seal off the Lorraine Motel,
to continue their investigation.
Within 24 hours,
police would claim the bullet in King's body is consistent
with the type of gun found on the Main Street.
Eye witness'
statements enable the immediate issue description of the sniper.
Dr Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee,
this evening, at approximately six pm.
Witnesses said a well dressed young white man was seen running from the area
and dropped a weapon.
He was later allegedly seen driving away in a white automobile.
The weapon has been recovered by Memphis police,
and they have also recovered a blanket from a nearby warehouse building,
from which the assassin allegedly fired the shot.
But James Earl Ray has already made it out of the state,
and eventually escapes to Britain, using a false passport.
Though the white people do not know it,
but the white people's best friend is dead.
Um, um, the black people's leader,
our Moses, the once in a four, five hundred year leader,
has been taken from us by hatred and bitterness.
Even as I stand at this hour,
I, I can not even allow hate to enter my heart at this time,
for it was sickness, not meanness, that killed him.
And somehow this nation has to continue to be challenged
and to be transformed from what it is, to what it ought to be...
Despite the pleas for calm,
within hours violent riots break out
at one hundred and thirty cities across America.
A reaction to what many Americans see
as the greatest injustice against the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King's philosophy of non-violence,
a principle that he defended throughout his life, is forgotten.
The storm of violent retribution sweeps across the nation...
The voice that called forjustice and brotherhood has been stilled,
but the quest for freedom to which he always gave eloquent expression,
continues on...
King remains the inspiration
for those fighting for civil rights and equality in American society.
James Earl Ray was caught in London two months later,
extradited to the US and sentenced to 99 years.
He died a prisoner in 1998,
the King Family continue to believe Ear Ray was flamed.
In 1999, the judiciary of the Tennessee Court found
King was assassinated by conspiracy involving US agency.
In 2000 the Us Justice Department inquiry
found no evidence to support these findings.
By the time Martin Luther King was assassinated,
on another continent a freedom fighter engaged in a violent struggle,
had already been in prison for five years...
It will be another twenty two years before he is released...
It is the eleventh of February 1990.
In panama General Noriaga has surrendered to the US military.
In Yugoslavia, forty five years of communist rule have come to an end.
In Romania, president Chow chescu has been executed by his own people,
and in Cape Town, South Africa,
it has just been announced that the world's most famous political prisoner
is about to be freed...
In a private villa thirty miles from Cape Town,
Nelson Mandela wakes up at dawn.
Now aged 71, his day begins like every other during
his twenty seven year sentence, with an exercise routine.
With his release, today will mark the beginning of a new era
for the people of South Africa...
For the last fifty years,
black South Africans have been engaged in the struggle against the ruling
National party's policy of racial segregation, or apartheid.
A battle for racial equality in their own land.
Mandela became their most prominent voice,
and stepped up the campaign with a call for violent retaliation
against the brutal regime.
In 1962 he was captured, tried for terrorism
and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Newly installed president F.W. De Klerk,
has bowed to pressure from international sanctions, to end Apartheid,
and announce Mandela's release as the first sign of reconciliation.
With the eyes of the world trained upon them,
the way today's events are perceived will determine the future of South Africa.
At five o'clock warrant officer James Gregory arrives for work, as usual,
knowing today is the most important day of his career.
Mandela must leave the prison at exactly ten a.m.
For twenty years, Gregory has been assigned to guard Mandela,
and censor all his correspondence.
He is the only officer who the government has trusted
to be with him throughout his sentence.
Today it falls to Gregory to make sure
that the government's wishes are carried out to the letter,
so that they gain the maximum political capital out of the occasion.
For the first twenty five years of his sentence,
Mandela was housed on Robin Island, South Africa's most notorious jail.
While he was in isolation,
his supporters and campaigners around the world took up his cause,
knowing that this was the only way to pressure
the South African government into reform.
Reluctantly they had to concede that the health
and security of their most dangerous prisoner, was their number one priority.
So for the last fourteen months,
he has lived at the Victor Verster low security farm prison,
in a private villa, a mile away from any other inmates.
For the last two years,
Gregory has allowed Mandela very limited access to newspapers.
On this, his last morning in prison,
for the first time Gregory allows him to read all the newspapers.
But there is precious little concerning his release.
Because it has been announced so late.
Outside the prison gates, thousands of supporters, officials
and journalists are already starting to gather for his release.
At seven forty a.m. The prison governor,
Brigadier Coulda arrives at the house with the discharge papers.
By signing these historic documents,
Mandela is no longer a prisoner of the South African government.
They congratulate each other privately,
knowing that this marks the end of an era for both of them.
But although Mandela's free, he's not able to leave yet.
He has now become a prisoner to the world's media.
And there are still two hours left before he is due in front of the cameras.
It's now eight o'clock,
and Gregory sets off to the front gate,
to pick up the first members of Mandela's reception committee.
For security reasons, he has to escort all visitors to the house.
These men are representatives of Mandela's political party,
the until recently banned African National Congress, or ANC.
With all the clamour for Mandela to be released,
the government has had to recognise and negotiate with them.
Today is the first chance to prove that they can work together.
Mandela has remained in prison one week longer than originally agreed,
to allow him and his ANC colleagues the time to plan the release,
for maximum political gain.
He has to prove to his public that he hasn't given up his ideals,
that his release is not the end of the struggle,
but the start of a revolution.
And while the ANC wants to continue their campaign
to overthrow the white government,
they also need to appear to be the party that
can lead South Africa into a new era.
Before his release was announced,
Mandela had dreamt that his first day of freedom would be spent quietly
at home with his wife Winnie and their family.
However, it has been decided that the release is too important an occasion
not to speak to the world for the first time in thirty years...
But even hours before he is released, the location for his first words,
and what he should say, are still matters for debate...
Mandela isn't expecting a large crowd,
and suggests he makes his first speech at the prison gates,
before addressing a rally in Cape Town.
But he is overruled,
as the prison is in the heart of white middle class South Africa.
Instead he is to be rushed straight to City Hall in Cape Town,
but the speech is still to be finalised.
Outside the prison, with an hour to go before Mandela appears,
the crowd has built up to four thousand.
People are perched wherever they can,
to get the first look at their hero since he was imprisoned.
In Cape Town, thousands have already gathered in the exhausting heat,
and news crews from around the world are starting to broadcast their first images.
Its nine thirty, time for Mandela to get dressed, ready to leave.
Gregory waits for him in his office.
Once Mandela is changed,
all they need is the go ahead from the prison gates.
Everything appears to be going to plan.
Within half an hour,
Gregory will have finished the job he started twenty years ago.
Minutes later the gate house calls.
He is told that everyone has arrived to escort Mandela out of the prison.
But as soon as he hangs up,
he immediately realises that someone is missing...
Winnie Mandela, Nelson's wife,
is stuck a thousand miles away in her home town Johannesburg.
Because the announcement of her husband's release came so late,
she wasn't able to arrange a flight to Cape Town in time.
Gregory breaks the news that Winnie definitely won't be there by the time
they are due to leave,
and might not make it at all today.
He is faced with the choice,
of either forcing Mandela through the gates on time, without Winnie,
or defying the government by keeping the world waiting,
possibly for another day.
The prison governor calls Gregory to find out why Mandela hasn't left yet.
Mandela has told him that he won't leave without Winnie,
so Gregory, at the risk of losing his job,
tells the governor that there will be a delay.
Mandela now has time to address the details of the speech.
The ANC are keen to highlight the role that they have played
in negotiating with the government that is hoping for reconciliation.
But despite the fact that Mandela is being freed,
the speech can't be seen to be appeasing the government
that still hasn't abandoned apartheid.
So for him, the question is not if they should keep fighting, but how.
For Mandela's people, the black majority,
most of whom live in townships across the country,
the importance of the speech can't be underestimated.
For fifty years they have lived with the misery of apartheid,
which has left them powerless and poor.
They've waited half a century for their freedom,
their chance to be treated as equals.
And so they're hoping that Mandela's speech will confirm
him as the leader they've longed for.
Under the midday heat, the crowd waits for information about Mandela's whereabouts.
He is now two hours late, and nobody outside the prison knows why.
In Johannesburg, Winnie is finally boarding her plane.
On hearing that she is leaving,
the prison governor sends out a message
that the release will now be at three o'clock,
five hours later than planned.
Whilst Mandela takes a nap,
Jack Swart prepares an unexpected lunch for the guests.
Astonished at the thousands
who have gathered outside the gates,
the governor takes extreme action to avert a volatile situation within the prison,
by locking up all the non-white prison guards.
At one o'clock Gregory wakes Mandela,
to say that Winnie is on her way from the airport,
and he'll be able to leave the prison in two hours time.
But amongst a restless crowd of thousands in Cape Town,
years of brutal oppression are coming to the surface.
Violence breaks out between groups of Mandela's supporters and the police.
Several people are injured, and taken away to makeshift first aid points,
before ANC marshals manage to separate the two sides.
It is three thirty, and Winnie Mandela has finally made it to the prison.
Throughout Nelson's imprisonment, she has stood by him,
and campaigned for his release.
Despite the impression of unity, their marriage is already faltering...
Apart from the strain of twenty seven years of separation,
their political views have diverged.
With her arrival, everything is now in place for Mandela to leave the prison,
albeit another thirty minutes later than planned.
Military intelligence informs Gregory that one of the guards en route to the gate,
has been contracted to assassinate Mandela as he leaves.
Gregory panics and tells Mandela that there will be a further delay.
Mandela is eager to leave, and join his supporters,
who have been waiting twenty-seven years for his release.
But he knows that Gregory wouldn't delay him unless the threat was real.
So he leaves him to do whatever it takes.
Gregory radios across the prison,
insisting that all guards remove their weapons.
On hearing this message,
the prison officer overrules Gregory's order.
The jail houses hundreds of prisoners, and disarming the guards is unthinkable.
But Gregory refuses to move Mandela until the threat is removed.
So, faced with the possibility of a further delay,
the governor reluctantly orders all the prison guards
to follow Gregory's order.
Another ten minutes pass,
before Gregory is assured that everyone has been disarmed,
and he can let Mandela leave.
He orders Mandela's personal effects to be loaded into a van,
ready for his departure.
Twelve crates of books and newspaper cuttings
that he has collected over the last two years.
After over twenty years in his care,
Mandela says goodbye to Gregory, their last moment as prisoner and guard.
We're back! There is excitement, there's movement,
we've just heard that Mr Mandela has left his home of the past fourteen months.
He is on his way to leave the Victor Verster prison.
If I may turn around...
While the jail's most famous prisoner leaves for his appearance
in front of the world's cameras,
the locked up prison guards have to watch events unfold on TV...
...about three to four minutes, even maybe five...
before Mr Mandela's car will be stopping at the gate...
Finally, at three forty-five the convoy sets off for the front gate.
After twenty seven years in isolation,
Mandela is about to enter a society that he knows little about,
with an uncertain future for him, and his nation.
As the convoy departs,
Jack Swart discovers that in his rush to leave,
Mandela has forgotten the only two items he can't afford to leave behind.
His glasses, and his notes for the speech...
His job done, Gregory pulls his car aside,
to let the others pass, before they reach the gate.
As Mandela goes by, he gives the ANC salute,
a gesture of solidarity that,
until recently, would have landed Gregory in prison.
Swart tries to ring ahead to the front gate.
But it is too late.
Mandela's convoy has already arrived,
and nothing's going to delay the release any further.
South African national television has suggested
that Mandela walks the last fifty metres,
so they can identify him.
This is the first time the government has allowed them to show his face...
...appearing in public ...for the first time... any moment now...
...there's Mr Mandela, Mr Nelson Mandela,
a free man, taking his first steps into a new South Africa.
That is the man that the world has been waiting to see,
his first public appearance in nearly three decades...
walking strongly, step by step, further into freedom...
Despite what he is being told,
he is completely bewildered by the crowd's reaction...
In their excitement to see him, people surge past the marshals...
...the day he has also been waiting for...
Mindful of the security,
he is returned to his car, to be rushed to Cape Town,
where he'll give his all important first speech...
...Mr Mandela has walked his first steps to freedo
into a new South Africa, now on his way to Cape Town...
Fifty thousand people have squeezed into the centre of Cape Town.
While waiting for Mandela,
dozens have already suffered heat exhaustion,
and three people have had heart attacks.
Now that the cavalcade is on its way,
they hope to see him speak within an hour.
...total excitement...
Because thousands of people have jammed the roads
between the prison and Cape Town,
Mandela's car takes three hours navigating the back routes...
It's seven o'clock by the time Mandela finally manages to arrive at City Hall,
but ten thousand of his staunchest supporters have stayed to hear him speak...
Mandel! And Mr Mandela is announced,
and there he is... Nelson Mandela...
twenty seven years since his incarceration... And the crowds...
Back in the prison villa, Jack Swart watches on TV.
He has been unable to reach Mandela, and still has his notes and his glasses.
Thankfully for Mandela, he doesn't need his notes,
but he doesn't have another pair of glasses,
so for his first public address in thirty years,
he has to wear Winnie's.
Seaks African.
Friends, comrades, and fellow South Africans...
I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all
Mandela's speech, long anticipated by his supported,
but feared by the government, lasts for over an hour.
It's not until he calls for a continuation of the violent struggle to end apartheid,
and white political domination,
that his supporters hear the rally cry they have been waiting for,
and the government realises that this really is the end of an era...
It has to be ended... by our own decisive mass action,
in order to build peace and security which necessitated the armed struggle,
still exists today.
We have no option but to continue...
crowds: "Viva, viva, viva!"
We express the hope that the climate...
After over twenty years in the prison service,
James Gregory retires almost immediately,
having played his part in this historic day...
I have challenged the idea of a democratic and free society.
It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die...